Circuit de Catalunya facts & stats
The Circuit de Catalunya was one of Barcelona’s many building projects during the build-up to the 1992 Olympic Games. It staged the start and finish of the time trial cycling event at the Games, and has been a permanent fixture on the Formula 1 calendar since ’91.

The track’s wide variety of corners make it a severe test of man and machine, which is why it’s a favourite test venue for the teams. Two of the three pre-season tests took place at the Circuit de Catalunya and, between them, Jenson and Lewis have already notched up 3,500km around the track this year.

An abrasive track surface, combined with high cornering speeds, makes the circuit very demanding on tyres. Pirelli are taking their hard and soft compounds to the race, so three pitstops look most likely, but strategies will vary as teams factor in the lack of overtaking opportunities around the lap.

McLaren is the second most successful constructor in the history of the Spanish Grand Prix, the most recent of its eight wins coming in 2005. Jenson has one victory in the race, in 2009, while Lewis Hamilton achieved a best result of second last year.

“Barcelona can be a funny circuit: we all test there so regularly that every driver knows it like the back of his hand, yet it can still be an extremely tricky place to get absolutely right.

“But, because every team is so dialled in to the track, even having a well-sorted car isn’t necessarily the answer because it’s sometimes the smallest differences that determine the order.

“You need to have absolutely every box ticked if you’re going to win at Barcelona. It’s a place that punishes poor balance like almost nowhere else – if your car is understeering around here, then you’re going to really struggle.

“There are no particularly stand-out corners, but the blast up the hill through Turns Seven and Eight and the fast right-hander at Turn Nine have a great flow and feel great when you nail it – especially in qualifying.”

“Our performance at Barcelona during winter testing looked promising – but the form of the season is still very hard to read, so it’s difficult to predict who’ll be at the front next weekend.

“Nonetheless, we had a great race there last year – I pushed Sebastian [Vettel] all the way to the finish. I think we have a comparatively stronger car this year, so I hope we can have another strong race.

“It’ll be interesting to see how straightforward overtaking will be this year. It’s always been a tough place for passing – as I found out last year – but I really hope DRS and KERS-Hybrid combined will make it a little easier.

“I think it’s going to be one of the toughest tracks of the year for overtaking, but I’ll be hoping for a strong performance in qualifying in order to make it as straightforward as possible in the race.”

Martin Whitmarsh - Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“I think the drivers and the engineers enjoy the tricky technical challenge of Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. You really operate your set-up on fine limits around here: every team’s balance is so refined that even the slightest imperfections become highlighted. Get it right and you tend to have a serene afternoon, get it wrong and you’ll be hitting trouble, and traffic, throughout the race.

“As we’ve seen in the first four races, added to that mix will be the additional conundrum of managing the tyres – Barcelona should give all the teams a clearer understanding of how the tyres behave in what’s likely to be a ‘typical’ European race climate. But there will still be plenty to learn.

“I sometimes think of the Santander Spanish Grand Prix as a useful acid test as to the effectiveness of the year’s regulations: it’s a tough, technical circuit where passing is limited. If the racing is good here, then we’re normally set for an interesting year: for 2012, we’ve already seen that the combination of DRS and KERS-Hybrid can spice up proceedings, so I hope we’re in store for a fun and eventful race next weekend.”

How McLaren defined nine days in the history of the Spanish Grand Prix

1. April 27 1975
A controversial fourth and final Spanish GP to be held at Montjuich Park in Barcelona. Emerson Fittipaldi refuses to race due to safety concerns, while his McLaren team-mate Jochen Mass scores his first – and what would turn out to be only – F1 victory.

2. May 2 1976
James Hunt’s first win in his world title-winning season. However, this is another contentious race because the stewards at Jarama disqualify James’s M23 for being too wide. McLaren appeal the decision and he is reinstated when it’s proved that the extra width is due to tyre expansion.

3. October 2 1988
Alain Prost beats pole-sitter Ayrton Senna away from the line at Jerez and the Frenchman is at his imperious best all afternoon. He beats second-placed Nigel Mansell by 26s, while Ayrton suffers fuel readout problems and comes home fourth.

4. October 1 1989
An utterly dominant performance from Ayrton at Jerez. He leads from lights-to-flag, beating Gerhard Berger and his team-mate Alain Prost. As a result, the battle for the championship goes on to the penultimate race in Japan…

5. May 10 1998
McLaren’s first win at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. Mika Hakkinen is utterly dominant: he’s fastest in every practice session and starts from pole position. With his McLaren team-mate David Coulthard following him home, the result is McLaren’s third 1-2 in four races.

6. May 30 1999
Mika dominates the race from pole position to take his second win of the ’99 season. He’s followed home by David and then the two Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine.

7. May 7 2000
A third successive one-two for McLaren at the Circuit de Catalunya, and a third victory for Mika. Michael Schumacher runs him close this time, having started from pole, but the Ferrari driver drops back to fifth during the latter stages. David takes second once again.

8. April 29 2001
The one that got away. Mika leads into the final lap, but his Mercedes V10 gives up at Turn 3 on the 65th and final lap and he’s forced to pull off. He’s classified ninth, handing victory to arch-rival Schumacher.

9. May 8 2005
Kimi Raikkonen is in dominant form all weekend. He starts from pole position and is never headed, although a Safety Car after the start gives him plenty of think about. Juan Pablo Montoya finishes seventh in the second MP4-20 in his first race back from injury.

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Sebastian Vettel (1st)
“It was an incredible race, extremely tough. A good start was crucial and I was able to pull away from the pack, which was a big advantage as we always had to go on scrubbed tyres due to the fact we had used almost all of them in qualifying yesterday. Kimi was very quick and so was Grosjean. But everything seemed to work well today; strategy was good and I can only say a big thank you to the whole team and the guys in the garage. I said it yesterday, but they have done an incredible job over the last four races, the amount of work they had to do was so much. We asked them for this and for that, for tweaks here and there and they came with new parts, then old parts, then news parts again, back and forth and spent a lot of time in the garage trying to get the car to our liking. But we got there. I was very happy with qualifying today and all throughout the race. Kimi was fast today and it was close, but I am extremely happy and very proud of the team.”

Kimi Raikkonen, (2nd)
“It’s a great result for the team and we deserve it as everyone has been working very hard. To be honest, I’m slightly disappointed we didn’t take the win because we had the pace. I only had one chance to overtake Sebastian (Vettel) and unfortunately I chose the wrong side to try and get past. If I hadn’t made a small mistake at the start and allowed Felipe (Massa) to get through then maybe it would have been a different story, as we spent quite a lot of time fighting with him. At the end of the day, it’s good to have both cars on the podium, especially after last race which didn’t go to plan, but I honestly think we could have taken the victory today.”

Romain Grosjean, (3rd)
“It’s a great feeling to get my first podium, and I’m really proud of the whole team for doing an incredible job today. We’ve known all season how quick the car can be, but with such a tight field any small mistakes can make a huge difference. Today I think we got everything right, and we’ve finally been able to prove how competitive we are. Last week I was aiming for my first points, this week I was hoping for top five, but here we are on the podium so who knows where we can go from here! We can be very happy with what we’ve achieved today; hopefully we can now head to the Mugello test and find that last bit of to push us right to the top.”

Mark Webber (4th)
“It wasn’t a bad start. I didn’t have KERS for the first lap, so it was difficult to put pressure on Lewis, but then I got it back. In the first two stints, I couldn’t stay with those guys - the two Lotus’ and Seb - so I had to consolidate from there. Lotus has a tidy car and when everything comes together, it works well - they did a good job today and it shows how tight the Championship is; there have been four different winners. I got some good points today and both drivers and Red Bull Racing are doing well in the Championships. It wasn’t the most exciting race for me, but it’s been a good start to the Championship. I’m looking forward to getting back to racing in Europe.”

Nico Rosberg (5th)
“I had a pretty bad first lap today, but after that I was able to recover and get the most of our race. We had a good strategy and the pace of the car was pretty strong compared to the start of the season, although it was difficult to make progress as there were a lot of cars fighting for the same positions. Overall I’m happy with our weekend as fifth place gives me a few more points and I can see that we are making progress. Now we have a short break where we can work hard in the factory ready for the start of the European season. Before that, I’m looking forward to visiting the DTM opening race in Hockenheim next Saturday. It’s my first chance to return to Germany after two good weekends, particularly of course the win in China, and I look forward to celebrating that together with our fans.”

Paul di Resta (6th)
“The result today is massive for us. The team did an amazing job all weekend, the strategy came together and the pit-stops were perfect. We knew it would be a big ask to make only two stops and it was a close run thing at the end because my tyres completely went away on the final lap. I had Fernando [Alonso] very close behind me, but I saved a bit of KERS coming out of the final corner and managed to stay ahead. Apart from that, the car has been awesome. So we go away from here as a very happy team with a few weeks to reflect on things and determined to arrive in Barcelona in fighting form.”

Fernando Alonso (7th)
“It went a bit better than we feared and we managed to limit the damage. We had arrived here eight points down on the championship leader and we leave only two more points adrift. To finish this run of four races in this situation is positive, even if there is no point in denying that we cannot be happy with it in general terms. Now, it’s clear we have to make a step forward, because we cannot always count on the failings of others. For example, we closed the points gap to McLaren, something which I certainly would not have believed possible if it had been suggested yesterday. At the same time, we finished the race almost a minute behind the winner, which had never happened so far this year. I expected Lotus to be very competitive because they have been all weekend. So far it’s been good that there hasn’t been just one driver picking up the maximum points, as happened for example last year. As for the race, I can’t say anything I didn’t say already a week ago in Shanghai: the car is practically the same. At some points we were strong, in others much less so, all dependent on tyre behaviour. We lack top speed and when you are in a tight duel, that is penalising. As for the incident with Rosberg, I can only say that if, instead of such a wide run-off area there had been a wall, I’m not sure I’d be here now to talk about it. A shame that I was missing one more straight to get past Di Resta in the end: we could have picked up a few more little points which would have been handy. I said it earlier, we have to improve the car as quickly as possible: in Barcelona, we will have some major updates but so will the others and how good a job we will have done we will only discover on track at Montmelo.”

Lewis Hamilton (8th)
“There are good times and bad times in motor racing. I guess this was just one of those days. By rights we should have been fighting to finish in the top four today, but it didn’t work out like that in the end. The delays in the pits were a big part of that, of course. For the driver sitting in the car, that’s always frustrating, because you’re just waiting and there’s nothing you can do to help. We lost a bit of world championship momentum today - but, on the plus side, we still picked up four world championship points, and every point you score is valuable in a season as close-fought as this one. Now we’ll head into the European season, and it’s clear that we’ve got to do two things: we’ve got to work on the pace of our car and we’ve got to improve our pit stops.”

Felipe Massa (9th)
“It was definitely not a very easy race, but in the end, we managed to do a good job and, for the first time this year, finish in the points. It’s a nice result at this time, but we are well aware that it is not Ferrari’s style to be happy with a ninth place. Having said that, it is a performance that gives me confidence for the rest of the season. Clearly we have to improve the performance of the car as soon as possible to be able to fight for worthwhile positions. In Barcelona, everyone will bring major updates and we will have had to do have done a better job than the others because we have to make up the ground lost at the start of this championship. As for the race, I think the decision to save a set of new Softs yesterday was the right one. A shame I lost a place to Rosberg in the pit stop: if I had managed to stay ahead of him, maybe I could have got a better result. I suffered especially with the rears and, in the end, I was not going flat out because I did not want to end up in trouble with tyre degradation.”

Michael Schumacher (10th)
“Considering where I started the race today, it’s a positive that I was able to fight up to 10th place, score a point and finish a dry race this season. The tyres obviously played a large part in the race today, and in the conditions here, we had to adapt the driving style to keep the tyres together. It will be good to have the time now before Barcelona to sort out some issues and prepare our updates for the test days in Mugello. Next weekend, the DTM starts in Hockenheim and I am looking forward to my first visit to a DTM race for twenty years.”

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Sebastian Vettel delivered his first victory of the 2012 Formula 1 season in the Bahrain Grand Prix, and moved into the championship lead in the process - but only after resisting a stern challenge from the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen. On a day when Lotus delivered everything it had promised in the opening races, Raikkonen and team-mate Romain Grosjean hacked through the field to complete the podium behind the winning Red Bull.

Mark Webber took fourth in the second Red Bull, while pitstop problems consigned front row starter and erstwhile championship leader Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren to eighth. Nico Rosberg completed the top five after an eventful race for Mercedes.

Rosberg slipped back to ninth on a scrappy first lap, before recovering to fifth - although he attracted the stewards’ attraction along the way after some vigorous defensive moves against Hamilton and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari). The incidents will be investigated after the race. Rosberg slowed as he crossed the line, but made it home for fifth. Yahoo! Eurosport UK

McLaren were having problems from an early stage, with both Hamilton and Vettel complaining about their rear tyres. But things started to get worse for Hamilton on the ninth lap, when his pit stop cost him 9.9sec as he was passed by Alonso and Webber. He was seen shaking his head as he waited for the signal to go. As he eventually left the pit-lane, he said: “What happened there guys?”

But they obviously did not know because there was another fumble when Hamilton came in again on the 25th lap and when he made his third stop it was only slightly less tardy, at five seconds. Nico Rosberg, who finished fifth, appeared to have been given confidence by his maiden victory in China a week ago. Driving aggressively, he nudged both Hamilton and Alonso off the track.

His team-mate Michael Schumacher, who pinched a point at the end, was struggling by comparison and Mercedes embarrassed the seven times champion by telling him to follow Rosberg’s faster line into the Turn One hairpin.

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Nico Rosberg (1st)
“This is a very special moment for me. The whole weekend went perfectly. My first pole position, now my first win in Formula One - it really is fantastic. But it’s not only this; it’s the first win for the new Silver Arrow and for this great team. That is really special for me. Thanks to everybody in the team, here in China and in our factories in Brackley and Brixworth. It makes me very proud that we have improved the car so quickly. I will never forget this race, and the last 20 laps felt as long as if I was racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours! But then crossing the line was so intense. We will enjoy this success, but our feet are still on the ground. We are still not where we want to be, we are still working hard to understand the car and the tyres in all conditions, and we will keep pushing to improve our race pace even further. We will see how that works out in Bahrain.”

Jenson Button (2nd)
“Congratulations to Nico today - he drove a faultless race. But who knows what we could have achieved if we’d had a clear run at him in the final stint? Our pace was very good and the aim was to come out ahead of that following pack of cars - which we would have done if we hadn’t lost time in the pitstop - and chase him down and put him under pressure. The delay in the final stop was just one of those things though - all the other stops had been very strong this weekend, but that one in particular wasn’t. The delay pushed me back into the traffic, which was a little bit of a shock, but the pace and consistency are there in the car and I was able to get back into second position, after a good battle and a satisfying pass on Sebastian (Vettel). It’s disappointing not to have been able to challenge for the win, but it was a fun race with tons of overtaking and lots of battling. More important, it’s been a great day for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes because we’re now leading both world championships. It’s very important to be consistent, and it’s nice to be back on the podium, but there are just a couple of little things we need to improve upon to make life even better for ourselves.”

Lewis Hamilton (3rd)
“I had a great race! And, although neither Jenson nor I was sadly able to win, I’m really happy that Nico took his first win today, but I’m also really pleased for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team: both Jenson and I were able to get back on the podium and score some more good points. It was a tough race, though: I’d love to have been able to challenge Nico, and I think maybe I’d have been able to if I’d started on the front row, but we still managed to move forwards from the start I had a lot of fun overtaking people too. I reckon I got everything out of the car that I possibly could. It’s also a major positive to know that we’ve got a very consistent car. We just have to make sure we keep moving forwards, that’s all. Mercedes AMG, Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus and Sauber are all up there - that’s a serious championship and it’s going to make for great racing for the fans to watch. It’s been a while since I was at the top of the drivers’ world championship - but we’ve got to remain focused. I think if I just continue to work as I am then the wins will surely come, and I’ll keep pushing for some better results in the future.”

Mark Webber (4th)
“Trying to get the balance right for the whole race was very tricky. In the end, fourth was not too bad; it wasn’t the maximum, but it’s very tight between the teams at the front. At some points of the race, I saw P13/ P14 on the board, so I have to be satisfied with fourth place. I made a few mistakes running wide trying to push onto the back straight, it’s hard there as you can get onto the marbles. I think the strategy was good, but it’s always a gamble with the three stop, as to what traffic there might be. Congratulations to Nico, he deserves the victory, and also to Mercedes. For me it’s three fourths on the bounce now, it’s good points and we leave here reasonably satisfied, but we need to keep boxing and keep improving.”

Sebastian Vettel (5th)
“I had no tyres left at the end of the race. Sitting in the car, I was reacting with brake balance, diff, everything to try and keep the tyres, but by the last few laps, I knew the only chance was trying to keep ahead of Kimi; I think he ran into the same sort of problem. We got some good points and it was a good recovery from 15th. Mercedes won pretty comfortably today, so well done to them. We were generally too slow on the straights, and we’re losing time there; it made it difficult to pass other people. But overall, I’m pretty happy with fifth given the poor first lap. I missed out on the start, I wasn’t entirely happy finding the revs and I lost the initial bit when the lights went off. Usually I’m pretty quick with that, but today I was one of the last ones. The first lap wasn’t great, but with the strategy we managed to come back. I think the weekend was good for us, we learned a lot and hopefully we will take these lessons on board and go in the right direction for next week.”

Romain Grosjean (6th)
“It was a very good race, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I made a little mistake fighting with Mark (Webber) but overall it was a good performance. The car felt great and the team did an amazing job to give us such a big improvement from Friday, so I’m especially happy for the guys to be able to finish the race and get some good points on the board. To be up there fighting with McLaren and Red Bull is a great feeling and I’m happy to have got my season started properly. We’ve had high hopes since P3 on the grid in Melbourne, and now after a few setbacks it’s time to aim higher. There’s always room to improve and hopefully from here we can aim for the top five and eventually podiums. We’ll take things step by step but I’m feeling confident for the rest of the season ahead.”

Bruno Senna (7th)
“It was a great result for the team to finish with two cars in the points today. It was a tough race and tyre wear was high. Our strategy worked for us today but we’re still learning and improving together. We aim to continue to get better throughout the next few races.”

Pastor Maldonado (8th)
“It was very tough today. I lost places at the start and it was difficult to overtake but we had good pace. We were able to fight all the way to the end so I’m happy to get some points. It was a great result for the team.”

Fernando Alonso (9th
“We knew this would be a difficult race and that’s how it turned out. We were always in traffic, without an opportunity to exploit the car’s potential and when you are behind other cars, the tyres get worn much more easily. Choosing to do three stops clearly meant we would be forced to do some overtaking, but with the top speed we had, it turned out to be almost impossible on the main straight, so I had to invent some overtaking moves at other points on the track, where I could make better use of the car. Obviously, this does not leave me very optimistic for Bahrain, on a track where traction and speed are vital, exactly the areas where we are weakest. Once again next week it will be mainly a case of damage limitation. I don’t want to think of the classification because the priority is to improve the performance of the F2012. This does not mean however, that I have lost hope, quite the contrary. Last year, we believed all the way to Spa and there’s no reason not to at the moment, when we are third in the classification, just eight points off the leader. Sure, we definitely need to make a good step forward to make the car quicker. In Spain we will have major updates but so will the others and so it’s not that I’m expecting a miracle of going one second quicker than the others.”

Kamui Kobayashi (10th)
“Of course after what we did in qualifying the race result is disappointing. I’m not really sure what happened at the start, my car just didn’t move, it was a bit strange and I lost positions immediately. Then I was stuck in traffic for most of the time, also we made the second pit stop a bit late and the tyres had gone. Quite often we have recovered in the race from a bad qualifying, but today it was the other way round. So we have proven we can be strong in both qualifying and race, and next time we will put this all together.”

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The scale of the Shanghai International Circuit is breathtaking. Built on marshland in 2003, the track sits on more than 40,000 stabilising concrete pillars and its infrastructure is bigger and bolder than at any other circuit on the Formula 1 calendar.

The track is a good technical challenge for the teams and drivers with some high-speed changes of direction and a 1km back straight offering a challenge to find the least compromised set-up. One of the most demanding corners on the lap is Turn One, a tightening right-hander entered at speeds in excess of 300km/h with an apex speed or 70km/h. It places the left-front tyre under prolonged stress, which has an impact on wear rates and race strategy.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has a strong record in the Chinese Grand Prix. The team has won the race three times and finished on the podium on seven further occasions.

You called the Malaysian Grand Prix a “bad day in the office” – does that change your preparations for this weekend’s race in Shanghai?

“Not really, it makes you a little keener to get back in the cockpit as you’re always a bit more determined to be looking ahead rather than looking back. But, like I say, it doesn’t really make any difference. In fact, the three-week break has been extremely relaxing – I was able to get away, relax and keep training. It’s still the start of a very long season, so it’s good to keep fit and refreshed. I’ve usually gone well in Shanghai, it’s a circuit I really enjoy and I’m looking forward to the race weekend.”

You memorably won here in 2010 – what is it about the circuit that makes it special?

“Well, the facilities are amazing, but it’s a very good, modern circuit – the first two sectors are pretty technical, there are some interesting combinations of corners and you need a good, responsive car to go well. Then the track opens up, the straight is one of the longest in Formula 1 – it just keeps going – then you’re into the hairpin and the final turn, both of which offer good opportunities for overtaking. There’s no one particular corner that stands out, but that’s good, because it means they’ve done a good job with the whole track.

“And if it rains, then it’s going to be another extremely unpredictable race as we’re all still learning about the cars and tyres in damp conditions. Whatever happens, it should be interesting.”

What will be the key to a good race performance in 2012?

“There will be the usual set-up compromises: setting the car up to offer good downforce through some of the faster corners, but without sacrificing too much speed along the straights. We saw different teams address that balance in different ways over the first two races, so it will be interesting to see if things start to converge this weekend after a few weeks back in Europe.

“Tyre wear will also be very important – last year we saw a real disparity between the compounds – so getting the preparation right will be crucial.”

You opened your winning account in China last year, are you hoping for the same this season?

“I’m looking at the championship as a whole – although, of course, I’d love to win every race, it’s more important to be in a good points-scoring position at every race. I think the first two races have shown that, as a team, we’re definitely in positions to win.

“I think Malaysia was a good example of how to pick up points when you’re looking at the championship – and that was something I really took away as a positive from that race. But yeah, I’ll be heading to China looking to win – but it’s just as important to pick up some good points if, for whatever reason, a win isn’t on the cards.”

What do you like about the Shanghai International Circuit?

“I have some vivid memories of racing in China – some good, some not so good! I’ve won there twice – both were victories I’m really proud of: in 2008, it was a very important race, and I really needed a good result for the championship – we had a pretty much perfect weekend with pole position, fastest lap and the race win. Then in 2011, coming off the back of a difficult weekend in Malaysia, I had a great race, kept pushing every lap and managed to take the lead right at the end. It was a very important win because it showed that we could be a force in the championship that year.”

Your two third positions have consolidated your position in the championship – is that the key to a good season?

“I won’t deny that I’m disappointed to have had two pole positions and not to have been able to convert either of them into victories, but I prefer to think of it that luck just hasn’t been on my side, and that it will swing my way sooner or later.

“I also think last year taught me the value of consistency: it’s no use chasing a great result if you can’t back it up with another strong finish the following week. So maybe I’m just playing myself in gently: after all, in 2007, I didn’t win a race until the sixth round, and I was in the hunt for the title all through the year. I still don’t think the pecking order has settled down yet, so it’s important to get some good results in the bag while we can. It will be very interesting to see how the order has shaken itself out over the last three weeks – it’s going to be an interesting weekend.”

Martin Whitmarsh - Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“The Chinese Grand Prix is a race in which we’ve traditionally gone very well – we’ve won three of the past four races here, all of which have come through faultless performances from Jenson and Lewis – and we head to Shanghai this year keen to add to that tally.

“While there are mixed feelings to have only been able to convert two all-front-row starting positions into one race win, everybody here at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes feels extremely encouraged by our pace in the first two grands prix of the season.

“Make no mistake, however: we’re acutely aware that our rivals won’t have stood still during the past three weeks. We’ve certainly been extremely busy, too, and we don’t take anything for granted: if the overall competitive order was a little hard to read in the first two races, I have no doubt that it will start to become clearer next weekend, and I strongly believe that, once again, it will be closely fought at the front.”

How McLaren defined six days in the history of the Chinese Grand Prix

1. September 26 2004
The inaugural Chinese Grand Prix ends with the top three separated by just 1.4s. Kimi Raikkonen comes home third for McLaren, after sitting on the gearbox of Jenson Button from the second round of pitstops.

2. October 16 2005
Kimi finishes second to newly crowned world champion Fernando Alonso. He sets the fastest lap of the race, but loses a strategic advantage when the Safety Car is deployed after Juan Pablo Montoya dislodges a piece of metal grating at Turn 10.

3. October 7 2007
Lewis Hamilton does everything right early on. He leads the race from pole position, but as he pits on lap 31 he runs wide at the pitlane entry and beaches his car in the gravel. Raikkonen wins for Ferrari, ahead of Fernando in the second MP4-22.

4. October 19 2008
Lewis converts pole position into the team’s first victory in China. His fastest lap of the race emphasises his dominance and, as a result of this win, all he needs is fifth place in Interlagos to clinch the world championship.

5. April 18 2010
A classic Jenson Button victory. Light rain falls at the start of the race and Jenson stays on slicks while his rivals pit for intermediates. When the rain stops and the track dries out, Jenson moves into the lead and is never headed. Lewis finishes second to give Vodafone McLaren Mercedes a one-two finish.

6. 17 April 2011
A three-stop strategy and a fresh set of tyres at the end of the race allows Lewis to rapidly close on Sebastian Vettel, who he audaciously passes for the lead with four laps left. Jenson comes home fourth to maintain his 100 percent finishing record in China.

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The Irishman, one of F1's most famous faces and current BBC Sport analyst, said he was "surprised and overjoyed" by the recognition. But the 63-year-old told BBC Sport he initially thought the "magnificent" honour was a friend "having a laugh". "When it's not something you're expecting you dismiss it. It came as a big shock, but I'm thrilled," he said. The Queen makes honorary awards to non-British citizens on the advice of the UK Foreign Office.

But Jordan admits he did not even realise he was eligible to receive the Royal honour. "I got a brown envelope and I thought it was another tax enquiry looking for more money," he laughed. "So I put it to one side and when I had another look I saw it had the Foreign and Commonwealth department stamped on it.
"I thought 'I don't have much contact with that department' so I had another look. And there it was."The Dubliner said he would be celebrating the OBE, and his forthcoming 64th birthday, in London after flying into the English capital from Lisbon, where he watched his beloved Chelsea beat Champions League opponents Benfica.

Jordan, one of F1's most charismatic personalities, paid tribute to the support of his family and his former Jordan Grand Prix team. He also said the honour would not have been possible without the help of charity CLIC Sargent and "in more recent times the BBC F1 team". Jordan has enjoyed a distinguished motorsport career as a driver, team owner, analyst and entrepreneur. He started behind the wheel but became well-known as the owner of Eddie Jordan Racing and later Jordan Grand Prix.

He gave future world champion Michael Schumacher his Formula One debut, while legendary drivers Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill made their first F3 drives under Jordan. After selling the team in 2005, he joined the BBC as a pundit in 2009 and took on a new role as chief analyst in 2011. The father-of-four, who has been married to former Irish international basketball player Marie for 33 years, also has a number of philanthropic interests. Most notably, he is patron of child cancer charity CLIC Sargent and The Amber Foundation for the young homeless.

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“This was a tough but fascinating race – firstly, I want to offer my congratulations to Fernando [Alonso] and Sergio [Perez] – they both drove great races and did a fantastic job. “It was pretty eventful race: it was difficult trying to judge the best time to change from Extreme Wets to Intermediates, and we were probably a little late on that – but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“Today wasn’t perfect – making the call for slicks is always a risk, and the others went a bit earlier than us. In general, we lost some time in the pitstops and I was pushed out of the fight somewhat. But, all in all, it’s been a positive weekend and I’m not too frustrated. My aim for this season was always to be consistent – I did it in 2007 so I’m trying to repeat that!

“A big thanks to Lucozade for doing such a great job with the new race hydration formulations this weekend – they’ve really made a difference in such a hot and humid climate. For me, the next races will be all about converting our really strong qualifying pace into equally strong race pace – that’s what I’ll be working in the few weeks ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.”

“Today was a pretty difficult day; pretty much everything that could have gone wrong in the race did go wrong. And that’s just one of those things – a lot of my issues were brought on when I wiped my front wing off at the start: I locked up the rears, couldn’t slow the car down and hit Karthikeyan, which was a bit frustrating. So I had to pit for a new nose, and that was pretty much it. “And it’s always going to be tough when you’re down in 14th or 15th position. All the cars were so close and it was difficult to overtake, too. That made it very difficult.

“Big congratulation to Fernando, Sergio and Lewis, who scored more good points for the team – but it just wasn’t a good day for me today. The amazing thing is that I’m still third in the championship after not scoring any points! “This wasn’t really the result I wanted – but, hey, chin up: we’ll move forwards and hopefully have a much better weekend in China!”

MARTIN WHITMARSH - Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“Today certainly wasn’t the day I was expecting! Firstly, this was a terrific race for Ferrari and a great result for Sauber – congratulations to both teams. It’s frustrating for us, as the race didn’t really go our way, but today’s result is great for the sport of Formula 1.

“For Jenson, it was simply a bad day in the office – losing a front wing in tricky conditions was always going to make it a hard afternoon for him. “Lewis was somewhat unlucky, too: Ferrari’s ‘double-shuffle’ pitstop meant we were obliged to hold Lewis in his pitbox longer than we would have liked, but that’s motor racing. Nevertheless, he brought home some extremely valuable world championship points – his 15 points today consolidate Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ position at the top of the constructors’ championship.

“Today’s conditions were always going to represent something of a roll of the dice. We didn’t quite manage everything today, and we’ll go back and analyse our performance, but in normal dry conditions we’ve shown that we’ve got decent pace. There’s a long season ahead, and with one victory and two strong podium positions, we can return to Europe extremely encouraged about the forthcoming races.”

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BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson - who has 13 years of F1 design experience as former technical director of the Jordan, Stewart and Jaguar teams - guides you through the stand-out features on cars up and down the pitlane.?

FERRARI
Ferrari have re-introduced pull-rod front suspension to their car - the first time anyone has used this in F1 since Minardi in 2001. Ironically, their driver that year was then-rookie Fernando Alonso, now Ferrari's number one. Most teams use push-rod front suspension - where the suspension arm runs from the bottom of the front wheel to the top of the chassis. Pull-rod works the other way around.

Outside Ferrari, I'm not sure you'd find anyone in F1 who can see the advantage of it.?
In theory, there are two slight pluses:
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1) The weight of the springs and dampers is lower down as they are mounted on the floor of the chassis rather than on top of it. This will slightly lower the centre of gravity of the car.
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2) The pull-rod itself might offer a slight aerodynamic advantage as its angle is more in harmony with the airflow coming off the front wing, and therefore should be more effective at directing it where the team want it to go - under the car.

But any advantage from either of these two characteristics will be very small, and in fact the weight advantage from the new location of the springs, dampers and torsion bars is likely to be counter-balanced by the need for the top wishbone to be stronger and therefore heavier because of the higher forces going through it.

Meanwhile, there is a much bigger disadvantage to using pull-rod suspension in terms of the limitations it creates in being able to tune the car's handling. If you move the push-rod mounting point backwards or forwards of the fulcrum of the top and bottom wishbone, you can transfer load across the car when the driver is steering and effectively lighten the front wheel.??That means the car can be tuned to work in both high- and low-speed corners.

t allows you to make the car softer and more compliant in low-speed corners without softening the suspension - thereby keeping the high mechanical stiffness you need in the car for high-speed corners.
But the pull-rod is connected to the wishbone, not the upright, so that tuning facility is not available in the same way for Ferrari.

You can still do some of it with the king-pin and castor angles, but anything you do that helps you in one area of the track will hurt you in another. That compromise doesn't exist with push-rods. So getting the ideal balance in handling characteristics for both low- and high-speed corners is tougher with pull-rod front suspension than with push-rod.

Ferrari have effectively taken a tool out of their tool kit. Would it have fixed the handling imbalance they are struggling with at the moment between high- and low-speed corners?
They'll never know because they can't use it.

Having said that, they might be OK in Melbourne because the track is mainly about low-speed and traction. And even in Barcelona, on new tyres, it looked reasonable. It was lap three of a run that it started to be a problem.

McLAREN?
The most obvious feature of the McLaren is that they are the only one of the top 10 teams to have a lower chassis without the step on top. That's because they were pursuing a design philosophy they have followed for the last two or three years which didn't require as high a nose. But they tested some new parts at the final pre-season test which changed the concept at the front of the car to one more like that used by most other teams.

They removed the horizontal splitter they had under the nose that was aimed at directing the air off the front wing, and replaced it with vertical guide vanes descending from either side of the chassis.
The vanes McLaren used were about 200mm high - but with a higher chassis they could be as much as 275mm, which would make it more powerful.

Will that be a deal-breaker in terms of wins? It's a matter of how close they are. Meanwhile, of the teams trying to get their exhausts to blow on the rear brake duct/diffuser area and increase downforce, McLaren are probably doing it best. The car looks well balanced out on the track, not nervous like you often see it with Lewis Hamilton driving, and that should suit Jenson Button.

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Michael Schumacher is not getting carried away with the positive winter testing programme his Mercedes team has enjoyed - and says the lessons of last year have made him more cautious ahead of the first race.

Twelve months ago, Schumacher and his Mercedes team believed they had a car capable of fighting at the front after topping the final pre-season test, only for its W02 to fall well short of those expectations.

This time around, Schumacher feels that Mercedes is in much better shape, but he says that he is keeping expectations more in check. “The car is reliable which is already good,” he told his official website.

“The first impression was already quite positive. We were driving out of the box with the car and everything went well, so there is potential.”“We are heading into the season much better prepared than in the past two years, and we can fully concentrate onto the development of our car. Yahoo! Eurosport UK

“The speed is promising and we have certainly made a step forward.”“I hope we can show that in Melbourne. But I want to wait until after the first races to judge how big this step is and how much it is worth compared to our competitors.”

“For me, victory in Australia is unlikely. I see Red Bull in front.”“Behind them it will be tight and you can be either hero or zero very quickly. It will come down to how well you set up your car for the track.”

Data from pre-season testing points to the Mercs of Schuey and Nico Rosberg closing on the Red Bulls of champ Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. The Sun

“We experienced last year that you can be very wrong relying on the data coming out of the winter tests,” the seven-time world champion explained. “And because we can see that the field will be very narrow this year. I do not have a clear picture yet. What we can say though is that the gap between the several teams will not be as big as it has been last year. Formula 1

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Romain Grosjean has become the first driver to go fastest on two separate days in pre-season Formula 1 testing, topping the times on the second day in Barcelona. Having been third fastest in the morning session, Grosjean was busy after lunch, completing a full 60-lap race simulation in the Lotus, using Pirelli’s soft and hard compounds.

He backed that up with a series of fast laps, setting the benchmark time of 1m22.614s with just minutes remaining, on a set of soft tyres. Jean-Eric Vergne ended the day second, despite not completing a flying lap following the lunch break. The Toro Rosso stopped and briefly caught fire with an engine problem right before lunch in Barcelona, bringing out the red flag.

While a full race simulation was planned for the afternoon session, the STR7 didn’t appear again until within half an hour of the session’s end, and was restricted to pitstop practice. Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Vergne was 0.235 seconds clear of world champion Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso fourth. Lewis Hamilton was ninth fastest for McLaren, some way off the pace after spending much time in the garage as the team worked on the car. McLaren have a raft of new parts to try out at this test as they run the car close to the specification in which it will appear at the first race on 18 March in Melbourne, Australia.

Hamilton said he was looking forward to trying the new parts when he gets back in the car on Sunday. Jenson Button takes over on Saturday. “Of course the other guys will make a step forward, too; it’s whether we can make a bigger one.” BBC Sport

Heikki Kovalainen showed the Caterham’s potential for the first time in testing by setting a lap two seconds faster than it managed last week. His 1:23.828, set on super-soft tyres in the morning session, was 1.6s faster than his qualifying time at the Spanish Grand Prix last year and a clear sign of the progress the team has made with the new CT01.

Kamui Kobayashi’s afternoon running was limited by a hydraulic problem but he still completed 73 laps in total with a best time of 1:23.836, good enough for sixth. He was just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India, which caused a red flag just after lunch due to a driveline issue and didn’t leave the garage again all afternoon.

Michael Schumacher, eighth quickest, had a difficult morning after causing two red flags. The first came when he stopped at turn eight, but the second was far more spectacular as he beached his car in the gravel at turn five. He went on to complete 79 laps in total with a fastest time of 1:23.987. ESPN F1

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