2010 Spanish Grand Prix

2010 Spanish Grand Prix
Race 5 of 19 in the 2010 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Circuit de Catalunya
Race details
Date	9 May 2010
Official name	Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Telefónica 2010
Location	Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain[1]
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.655 km (2.892 miles)
Distance	66 laps, 307.104 km (190.826 miles)
Weather	Mainly cloudy, dry
Attendance	98,200
Pole position
Driver	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:19.995
Fastest lap
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:24.357 on lap 59
Podium
First	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Second	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Third	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Lap leaders

The 2010 Spanish Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Telefónica 2010)

The first practice session was incident-free, save for

Hülkenberg would later provide drama in the second session, when an off-track excursion at the exit of Campsa resulted in an impact with the wall that tore the front wing off. Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari stopped on the circuit with just a few minutes remaining in the session, with the recovery truck hitting a bridge as it returned the stricken car to the pits. The session was topped by Sebastian Vettel, followed closely by teammate Mark Webber and Schumacher once again setting the third-fastest time. Alonso improved to fourth, while the McLarens of Hamilton and Button slipped backwards; Hamilton finishing fifth and Button ninth. Jarno Trulli supplanted teammate Kovalainen as the fastest of the new teams.

The third session was marked by separate incidents by Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi, both of whom found a puddle of standing water in the middle of the Repsol corner just minutes apart. Kobayashi survived unscathed, but Petrov spun and crashed. The damage to his R30 was extensive enough to warrant the team changing his gearbox, earning himself a five-place grid penalty. Similar penalties were applied to both Virgin Racing cars after the team failed to notify the FIA of changes to their gear ratios before the deadline, and to Hispania's Karun Chandhok, who replaced his gearbox.

Qualifying was a race to see who would place third on the grid as the Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel setting the fastest times in each of the three session. Webber went on to take pole position. Q1 saw the elimination of the six newcomers – a running theme throughout the season – as well as the Williams of

The second session was similarly themed, as Sutil, de la Rosa, Hülkenberg, Petrov, Buemi, Alguersuari and Liuzzi all fell away. Just four tenths of a second separated all but Aluguersuari and Liuzzi from making it into Q3. Elsewhere, Mercedes elected not to send Michael Schumacher out to join everyone else late in the session as they were confident his time would be enough to see him through to the final session. Ferrari committed to a similar course of action in 2009, with the result being that Kimi Räikkönen was eliminated early on.

The final ten-minute period was once again dominated by Red Bull, with Webber to the fore. Hamilton edged out local hero Alonso for third on the grid, while Button narrowly missed out on putting his MP4-25 alongside his team-mate. Schumacher slotted into sixth place, followed by Kubica, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Kobayashi. Ferrari were later fined US$20,000 (in keeping with the sport's strict financial penalty rule) for an unsafe release that saw Alonso deployed directly into the path of Rosberg; the young German was forced to swerve in the direction of the pit wall – and came close to contact with it – in order to avoid a collision.^[5]

Race

The front-row starting

The race order settled down with Webber leading from Hamilton and Vettel. Alonso was fourth, ahead of the Schumacher-Button scrap which Massa also joined, with Sutil, Kubica and the recovering Rubens Barrichello in the Williams completing the top ten. On lap fifty-four, Vettel went wide at turn six, with a suspected front brake failure and had a trip across the gravel. This damaged his tyres, and he came in for inspection and also for a new set of tyres, which dropped him behind Alonso. It was soon evident that he was struggling with brake issues, and thus Vettel had to slow down for the rest of the race to nurse his brakes and finish the race. On lap sixty-five – the penultimate lap of the race – Hamilton lost second place when he suffered a left-front tyre puncture followed shortly by a blowout at turn three, which punted him into the wall, although far less violently than when a similar accident claimed then McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen at the 2008 race. He was classified as finishing fourteenth as he had completed 90% of the winner's race distance, his accident gifting second place to Alonso and allowing the fading Vettel back onto the podium for third. Vitantonio Liuzzi suffered a similar fate to Hamilton when his engine gave up on the same lap, the Italian stopping on the circuit.

Mark Webber crossed the finish line first, becoming the tenth driver in ten Spanish Grands Prix to win from pole. Alonso finished second, with Vettel third and the unresolved Schumacher-Button scrap seeing the former World Champion home before the defending champion. Massa finished sixth, followed by Sutil, Kubica, and Barrichello and Alguersuari, who were a lap down. Jarno Trulli's Lotus was the first of the new teams to finish the race, whilst Virgin Racing notched up their first double-finish of the season, despite Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi driving different versions of the VR-01. The final result meant that Button kept his championship lead going into the next round by just three points, while the same amount separated McLaren from Ferrari in the constructors' standings, with Red Bull only a further three points behind.

Post-race

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media at a later press conference. Red Bull team mechanic Kenny Handkammer appeared on the podium to receive the winning manufacturer's award.^[6]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	6	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:21.412	1:20.655	1:19.995	1
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:21.680	1:20.772	1:20.101	2
3	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.723	1:21.415	1:20.829	3
4	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:21.957	1:21.549	1:20.937	4
5	1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.915	1:21.168	1:20.991	5
6	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:22.528	1:21.557	1:21.294	6
7	11	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:22.488	1:21.599	1:21.353	7
8	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:22.419	1:21.867	1:21.408	8
9	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:22.564	1:21.841	1:21.585	9
10	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:22.577	1:21.725	1:21.984	10
11	14	Adrian Sutil	Mercedes	1:22.628	1:21.985		11
12	22	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:22.211	1:22.026		12
13	10	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:22.857	1:22.131		13
14	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:22.976	1:22.139		191
15	16	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:22.699	1:22.191		14
16	17	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:22.593	1:22.207		15
17	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Mercedes	1:23.084	1:22.854		16
18	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.125			17
19	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:24.674			18
20	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1:24.748			20
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:25.475			222
22	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1:25.556			232
23	20	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	1:26.750			243
24	21	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:27.122			21
Source:[7]

Notes:

1.^ – Vitaly Petrov was given a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change after the Russian crashed during free practice and damaged the rear end of his car.

2.^ – The Virgins of Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi were both given five-place penalties after the team failed to notify the FIA of changes to their gearbox ratios before the deadline for doing so.

3.

Hispania's Karun Chandhok

was also issued a five-place penalty for a similar gearbox-related infringement.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	66	1:35:44.101	1	25
2	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	66	+24.065	4	18
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	66	+51.338	2	15
4	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	66	+1:02.195	6	12
5	1	Jenson Button	Mercedes	66	+1:03.728	5	10
6	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	66	+1:05.767	9	8
7	14	Adrian Sutil	Mercedes	66	+1:12.941	11	6
8	11	Robert Kubica	Renault	66	+1:13.677	7	4
9	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	65	+1 Lap	17	2
10	17	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	15	1
11	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	65	+1 Lap	19
12	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	10
13	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	8
141	2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	64	Accident2	3
151	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Mercedes	64	Engine	16
16	10	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	64	+2 Laps	13
17	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	63	+3 Laps	18
18	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	63	+3 Laps	22
19	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	62	+4 Laps	23
Ret	16	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	42	Hydraulics	14
Ret	20	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	27	Collision damage	24
Ret	22	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	20	Collision damage	12
Ret	21	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	0	Accident	21
DNS	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	0	Gearbox	20
Source:[8]

Notes:

1.^ – Both Lewis Hamilton and Vitantonio Liuzzi were classified as they had completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

2.^ – Lewis Hamilton's accident was caused by a damaged wheel rim that punctured his tyre.^[9]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Jenson Button 70 1 2 Fernando Alonso 67 2 3 Sebastian Vettel 60 4 4 Mark Webber 53 3 5 Nico Rosberg 50 Source: [10]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 119 2 Ferrari 116 3 Red Bull-Renault 113 4 Mercedes 72 5 Renault 50 Source: [10]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

• 2010 Catalunya GP2 Series round
• 2010 Catalunya GP3 Series round

References

1. ^ "2010 Spanish Grand Prix". Motor Sport. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
2. ^ "Spanish". Archived from the original on 2010-07-28. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
3. ^ Benson, Andrew; Holt, Sarah (2009-08-29). "Bahrain set to start 2010 season". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
4. Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló: BBC
   . Retrieved 2010-05-10.
5. Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló: BBC
   . Retrieved 2010-05-10.
6. ^ "Podium". Zimbio.com. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
7. ^ "FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA TELEFÓNICA 2010 – Qualifying Results". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
8. ^ "FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA TELEFÓNICA 2010 – Race Results". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
9. Haymarket Publications
   . Retrieved 2010-05-30.
10. ^ ^{a b} "Spain 2010 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2010 Spanish Grand Prix.

Previous race: 2010 Chinese Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2010 season	Next race: 2010 Monaco Grand Prix
Previous race: 2009 Spanish Grand Prix	Spanish Grand Prix	Next race: 2011 Spanish Grand Prix