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Spain 2011 - Race information - Barcelona hosts the next round of the Formula One Championship

Published by Christine

Four races complete, and the Formula One circus heads back to Europe proper for the Spanish Grand Prix. So far, things are all still going Red Bull's way, but with rumours of the blown diffuser being banned - although not at this race - could we be about to see the tides turn?

Event schedule

Although Sebastian Vettel is dominating the championship so far, McLaren aren't going to let him run away with it yet. For Barcelona, they're bringing at least ten new upgrades, particularly bringing on board something that should have been in place in Turkey.

Pirelli have confirmed they'll be bringing the new hard compound tyres that were tested in practice in Istanbul. The gap between the soft and the hards should be bigger, and the ideal strategy is meant to be a three-stopper. However, Pirelli point out that visiting the pits takes longer in Barcelona, so that will play into strategies too.

Session Timetable
DateDaySessionTime (GMT+1)Time (Local)
20 MayFridayFree Practice 109:0010:00
Free Practice 213:0014:00
21 MaySaturdayFree Practice 310:0011:00
Qualifying13:0014:00
22 MaySundayGrand Prix13:0014:00

Support racing for this event includes GP2, GP3, Mini Challenge and the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

The weather

Forecasts for the coming weekend show plenty of warm weather and beaming sunshine, with perhaps just a few clouds on Friday to put a shadow over the action.

It doesn't look as if there's any rain on the horizon but long range predictions are always to be taken with a pinch of salt.

clear

Circuit de Catalunya, Friday

23℃

  • Low 13℃
  • Humidity 46%

Sunny intervals

clear

Circuit de Catalunya, Saturday

24℃

  • Low 13℃
  • Humidity 42%

Sunny

clear

Circuit de Catalunya, Sunday

25℃

  • Low 14℃
  • Humidity 51%

Sunny

Circuit map

Barcelona Circuit Map
Barcelona Circuit MapCredit: FIA

The circuit

Circuit Data
NameCircuit de Catalunya
LocationSpain
TimezoneGMT +0200
First Race1991
Laps66
Length4.655 km
Distance307.104 km
Start / Finish Offset0.126 km

From Turkey, with the intimidating Turn 8, Barcelona is less of a struggle, helped by the fact that the teams have enormous amounts of data from previous testing days at the circuit. The hardest corner is Turn 3, where the flat-out speeds give drivers oversteer to deal with.

Overtaking is notoriously difficult, but with the addition of DRS and KERS, it will be interesting to see what difference that will make.

2010 Results
SessionDriverTeamTimeLinks
Free Practice 1Lewis HamiltonMcLaren1:21.134Live / Results
Free Practice 2Sebastian VettelRed Bull1:19.965Live / Results
Free Practice 3Sebastian VettelRed Bull1:20.528Live / Results
QualifyingMark WebberRed Bull1:19.995Live / Results
Grand PrixMark WebberRed Bull1:35:44.101Live / Results
Fastest LapLewis HamiltonMcLaren1:24.357

Tyre compounds

Hard and soft compounds
Hard and soft compoundsCredit: Pirelli

Press conference schedule

Official press conferences are organised by the FIA and happen four times during the weekend. The qualifying and post race press conferences will take place after the television unilateral interviews.

Press Conference Schedule
DayTime (Local)AttendeeRepresenting
Thursday15:00Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso
Fernando AlonsoFerrari
Pastor MaldonadoWilliams
Sergio PérezSauber
Mark WebberRed Bull
Friday16:00José CarabanteHRT
Jean-François CaubetRenault
Stefano DomenicaliFerrari
Mark GallagherCosworth
Adam ParrWilliams
SaturdayPost qualifyingThree fastest drivers
SundayPost raceFirst three finishing drivers

Race stewards

The FIA stewarding process was changed last year to include a former F1 driver to give added insight. These are the stewards overseeing this weekend's action.

F1 Stewards
NamePosition
Mark BlundellEx-F1 and Champ Cars driver and Le Mans winner
Paul GutjahrPresident of FIA Hill Climb Commision and President of Auto Sport Suisse
Radovan NovakSecretary Gerneral of the ACCR and World Motorsport Council Member

All content in the series Spain 2011