Barcelona, May 22nd 2011 - Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has won a tense high-speed duel at Barcelona, beating McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in a hectic race to the chequered flag, with the two separated by just a handful of seconds from start to finish.
Such was their pace, using a combination of Pirelli’s new PZero Silver hard and PZero Yellow tyres, that with 20 laps still to go they had already lapped everybody up to sixth place with just 1.5 seconds between them. After their final stops, they emerged less than two seconds apart with 16 laps remaining.
The McLaren driver, who like Vettel stopped four times, set fastest lap using the new PZero Silver hard tyre to challenge his Red Bull rival all the way to the flag, ending the 307.104-kilometre race only 0.6s behind. The duo battled with less than a car length between them for the last 10 laps, providing one of the most memorable finishes to a grand prix this season as they carved through the traffic together.
At exactly the same time, there was an equally close fight for the final podium place between their team mates Jenson Button and Mark Webber. Button eventually claimed third thanks to a three-stop race strategy.
Webber started the race from pole using the PZero Yellow tyre, but the new harder PZero Silver tyre came into its own at the end of the race. The leading runners all chose to use the new hard tyre at the end of the race, due to the performance gap compared to the rapid soft tyre, as had been planned. This however provided an increased range compared to the previous version of the hard tyre, with the potential for the new tyre to run for up to 25 laps.
The extra durability was demonstrated by Lotus Renault’s Nick Heidfeld, who was forced to start from the back of the grid after failing to set a time in qualifying. Heidfeld began the race on the new PZero Silver tyres, switching over to the softer PZero Yellow tyres on lap 21 as part of a three-stop strategy that took him to a points-scoring eighth place from last.
Just behind him, the Sauber team also ran a different strategy to the others, using the hard PZero Silver tyres during their middle stints and finishing the race on the soft tyres. This tactic also proved successful, bringing both cars home in the points. Underlining the importance of strategy, this was the first time that the Spanish Grand Prix had not been won from pole position since 2000, when Mika Hakkinen won while Michael Schumacher started from pole.
Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said: “It was certainly a dramatic finish to the race, with the battle between Vettel and Hamilton going down to the final lap once again, using our new PZero Silver tyres. Both of them drove magnificently, treating us all to a
fantastic spectacle, and it was thrilling to see such an amazing start to the race from Fernando Alonso and Ferrari as well. Further down the field we also saw several other interesting variants on strategy, notably from Lotus Renault and Sauber. While it was a great race, we’re still not happy with the idea of having four pit stops as three is our target. This was caused by the performance differential between the hard and the soft tyres, which prompted the teams to opt for a sprint strategy, as can be seen from the sheer pace of this grand prix – although it’s interesting to note that the fastest lap was actually set on the new hard tyre. We’ll be looking at that again in future but for now we’re excited to be moving onto a completely different challenge: the street circuits of Monaco and Canada with the introduction of our new PZero Red supersoft tyre.”

SPANISH GRAND PRIX PREVIEW
When: Friday 20 to Sunday 22 May, 2011
Where: Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Round: 5 of 19

A track that AT&T Williams knows well, having raced here every year since 1991 and completed many thousands of kilometres of testing. The circuit’s long corners are a good test of car stability and aerodynamic performance, and a handful of slow corners towards the end of the lap put an onus on traction.

The most demanding corner on the lap is Turn 3, a long uphill right-hander that is taken almost flat-out. The drivers fight oversteer all the way through it and every time they lift off the throttle, even for a moment, it’s reflected in their lap time. Overtaking is difficult, but that doesn’t worry the Spanish fans. In recent years the circuit has become a shrine to Spanish World Champion Fernando Alonso. New AT&T Williams recruit Pastor Maldonado, a native Spanish-speaker, will no doubt find some support in the crowd as well.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:

Barcelona is a circuit that demands good aero efficiency. It isn’t a track that is hard on brakes and with its long high speed corners, the aero efficiency of the cars can be the biggest performance differentiator. The circuit layout hasn't been favourable for overtaking in the past - however with the tyre degradation and the moveable rear wing it will likely be different this year.

Since the Turkish Grand Prix, we have been working on our new rear wings that we ran in practice at Istanbul Park and we will have them on both cars again in Barcelona. In addition to that we’ll have new exhaust blown diffusers to test.

Barcelona is a great racing track and one that people know the most. It will be interesting to see how much the other teams and drivers have developed since we were there for the final test in March. I hope that we as a team can make a good jump forward in performance with our upgrades in Barcelona. I remain positive that we will.

It is going to be a very interesting race as we’ve had more time to develop the car now so we will see what we can do in Barcelona. We have more data as we tested there over the winter, so I think that will make it slightly easier than it’s been at the previous races. I think it will be easier from my point of view as well because I’ve already driven the FW33 there. We will continue to work on the new upgrades to see what a difference they can make. I really like the circuit. I think it is one of the best as it is a very complete, technical track with a good mixture of high and low speed corners. Turn 3 is probably my favourite; it is very long and fast.

The Circuit de Catalunya is well known to teams and drivers as a designated pre-season test venue. Teams arrive at the track with a good understanding of the track’s demands, having accumulated data in the two separate tests earlier this year. As a general rule, the Catalan circuit is not too demanding on engines but units are still put through a decent workout over the course of the lap. Only around 60% of the lap is spent at full throttle, but the 1.047km main straight requires good peak power, while the circuit’s unique flow of corners demands good driveability from the engine and a responsive gearbox.

Barcelona is a track that we know well as we’ve carried out a lot of testing there. We’re expecting the temperatures over the race weekend to be much warmer than they were back in March, when we had the last official test, and this should mean that our tyres will be working well within their operating window. We’re introducing a new evolution of the hard tyre for Barcelona, which should provide all the teams with a little extra durability.. We very much hope that this will help Williams to have a strong race in Spain: the team deserves a good result.

2011 SPANISH GRAND PRIX PREVIEW

Lewis Hamilton

“Barcelona has traditionally been the start of Formula 1’s European season, and we’re optimistic that we’ll once again be back in the fight for the big points this weekend.

“I think we didn’t meet our full potential in Turkey last week, and I’m hoping that the MP4-26 will be able to make a step forward if our initial testing on Friday goes successfully.

“It will be interesting to see how the DRS affects the racing. Typically, it’s been very tough to overtake at Barcelona because the best opportunity – into the first corner – is too fast to make a pass stick. It’s always been too hard to really get alongside another driver into the corner.

“But we benefited from two great races in China and Turkey because the DRS area led directly into a heavy braking zone, meaning it was possible to get two bites of the cherry: using the slipstream and using the braking zone. In Barcelona, it’s likely to be less clear-cut.”

“After a relatively low-key race for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team in Turkey, I think we’re headed to Spain and Monaco feeling more positive about getting the most from our planned upgrades.

“Turkey showed us that we are still on a learning curve with these Pirelli tyres, and while in Turkey it was a hard lesson to lose position due to strategy, I think it’s given us a lot of valuable lessons in how to work as a team, how to devise our strategy and how to get the most from the tyres out on the track..

“I think Barcelona will be interesting. Personally, it will feel strange to go back to a track where we had a difficult winter and to drive a car that will hopefully allow us to once again race at the front.

“As always, the Circuit de Catalunya is a very unforgiving track – it’s a track that brings out the best in cars. It’s important to get another strong result under our belts, particularly as we head straight to Monte-Carlo, so maintaining momentum will be vital.”

“The Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya has become a staple on the calendar and is a fantastic sporting festival for the many thousands of passionate fans who flock to the track throughout the weekend.

“I’m particularly interested to see how the 2010 rule-changes affect Sunday’s grand prix. We’ve seen how DRS and KERS Hybrid have influenced the racing so far this season, so we’ll see how things progress at Barcelona given that the Spanish Grand Prix has previously shown limited opportunities for overtaking.

“As we saw in Istanbul last week, there is always risk inherent in bringing any upgrade to the circuit – particularly following the absence of testing. For Barcelona, we’re planning to re-introduce some of the proposed upgrades initially scheduled for introduction in Istanbul. Once again, however, they’ll only be introduced if their initial deployment on Friday proves successful.”