The Spanish Grand Prix Preview
Apr 24, 2008
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If you were hoping that the times set during the recent test session at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya were going to provide a meaningful index to performance in this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, you no doubt you came away disappointed.
Felipe Massa was fastest for Ferrari on the first day, but ran on 2009-specification slicks. Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello each had a day atop the timesheets, for Renault and Honda respectively, and Mark Webber dominated the wet final day for Red Bull.
What did it all mean in the end? Only that everyone had a chance to do what they wanted, and in some cases that was not to set fast lap times.
Lewis Hamilton did not set particularly quick lap times, but said he remains buoyant ahead of the start of the European season despite the errors that made Bahrain his worst-ever showing in Formula One racing and cost him his lead in the world championship as he failed to score.
“For sure, you learn something in every race, even if you win,” he said as he prepares to bounce back. “I think we have come a long way and looking into the next race I feel very confident that we can do a better job.”
Ferrari may be the current pacesetters, but they say they are expecting a tough fight. “We come to Spain with every reason to be optimistic, after wins in Malaysia and Bahrain,” said Renault team principal Stefano Domenicali. “Testing here went well and we hope to keep our momentum moving forward. However, our rivals have not been twiddling their thumbs either, so we can expect a tough fight which we will tackle as usual with maximum concentration at every stage of the weekend.”
Kimi Raikkonen relishes coming to Europe as championship leader for the first time in his career, and is keen to repeat is 2005 victory. “We have all the components in place to be very competitive,” he says but, echoing his team boss, he adds: “It will be a very tough weekend.”
