you cray cray mayne.. i dont think Grosjean will be in there.. maybe, Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton.. but i hope we wont see a repeat of Bahrain, where the Mercs looked quick in quali but did abysmal in the race.. WE'LL SEEVery much looking forward to this race! My bold prediction for top 3: Vettel, Grosjean, Alonso
DRS issue for Alonso, he was doing fine and overtaking with the "degrading" Tyres all the way to 8th.Say the same word when Ferrari have a bad race like Bahrain
2011 Spanish GP
Winner - Vettel - 1 hr 39 mins 3.031 secs - 4 pitstops
2012 Spanish GP
WInner - Maldonado - 1 hr 39 mins 9.145 secs - 3 pitstops
2013 Spanish GP
Winner - Alonso - 1 hr 39 mins 16.596 secs - 4 pitstops
Turns out Alonso wasn't going that slow yesterday; actually faster if he pitted 4 times! Nothing has really changed!!
I think it's too simplistic to speak of downforce in general. You'd at least have to take front and rear as well as high- and low-speed downforce into account. Lotus was insanely fast through T3 in Catalunya, which is all about aero (and that turn is also the one that attacks the left front the most, which was the limiting factor in the race, and yet Lotus did the best job of preserving it), whereas Mercedes was best in the last sector, where aero really isn't that important. Similar with Ferrari and Red Bull. Plus, downforce is a two-edged knife: too much, and you kill the tyres, too little and you get wheelspin/don't get them up to temperature, which destroys them even more.The key difference this year seems to be that the more downforce you have, the worse you´ll do in races.
The Mercedes and Red Bull clearly has more downforce then the Ferrari and Lotus.
Nearest Ferrari/Lotus in Qualifying compared to Pole Position.
Australia
+1,083s Massa
Malaysia
+0.913s Massa
(Red Bull pole, Mercedes fastest of the guys on old tires)
China
+0.277s Raikkonen
Bahrain
+0.377s Alonso
Spain
+0.459s Raikkonen
Yet in the race it´s the other way around when in reality in general it should carry through to the race.