Lap 65 Rosberg was beaten by Hamilton in Bahrain when it looked like it
was going to be his day. Rosberg was aggrieved after being pipped by his
team-mates in qualifying. They are now over-taking Raikkonen who is only
back in seventh, such is the incredible pace of the Mercedes duo. Here comes
the final lap…
Lap 64 Alonso finally gets past his team-mate and a roar goes up from
the grandstands. The Ferrari’s are racing again and it’s a welcome sight.
Rosberg is gunning for Hamiltno and has cut the lead to 0.8 seconds. This is
incredibly stuff. It’s probably too late for the German, but what an effort
from both drivers.
Lap 63 Hamilton is now 1.1 seconds head of Rosberg while a real tussle
is going on for fourth as Vettel is told to ‘use his head’ as he closes on
Bottas.
Lap 62 Rosberg is all over Hamilton now at 1.2 seconds behind with five
laps to go. Alonso, meanwhile, is still struggling to find a way past
Raikkonen.
Lap 61 A real tussle for sixth place continues between Raikkonen and
Alonso. The Finn has the slight edge on last year’s winner and it’s been a
frustrating afternoon for the Spaniard who has spent most of the afternoon
behind his team-mate.
Lap 60 The lead is under a second now at 0.9 seconds as traffic starts
to build up for both McLaren’s. Rosberg gained half a second off his rival
the last lap and he’s giving it everything out there. ‘Where am I slower’,
Hamilton asks his team.
Lap 59 It’s squeaky-bum time in the Premier League…and squeaky-bum
time here as Rosberg is now 1.1 seconds off Hamilton. The German is coming,
Lewis. What does the Briton have left?
Lap 58 Make that lead 1.8 seconds as Hamilton attempts to save his
tyres. Vettel, back in fifth, is closing in on Bottas in fourth. The
three-stop strategy is working wonders for him.
Lap 57 Hamilton still complaining of ‘graining’ issues which seemingly
affects cars on entry to corners. The lead is still just under 2 seconds.
Lap 55 It’s been a lonely ‘ol drive for Ricciardo this afternoon.
Despite being left trailing by Bottas at the opening corner, since he’s
regained third, he’s made it his own and looks almost guaranteed to take the
third spot.
Lap 54 Vettel also pitted and Alonso rejoins behind the current world
champion as the battle for sixth ensues.
Lap 53 Hamilton responds by posting a faster lap than Rosberg. Alonso,
meanwhile, pits for a third time and opts to go back on the medium tyres.
Lap 52 Ooooh, it’s starting to get interesting. Rosberg is really going
for it out there and has cut the lead to between 1.8 and 2.1 seconds as the
traffic piles up. This could be a mighty 13 laps ahead. Advice from his
team, ‘just look after those tyres’.
Lap 51 Bottas, who had surged up to third on the final corner, is back
in sixth and a little way off Vettel who is still probably going to make his
third stop. Button has crept up to 11th but won’t be happy with his
afternoon’s work.
Lap 50 It seems that the Mercedes garage is slightly confused by how
many laps both drivers have got left this race. The Hamilton garage says he
has 17, Rosberg apparently 16. Is there something we’ve missed?
Lap 49 Hamilton is told he’s losing under-braking on turn 10 and takes
it easy on the next few corners as Rosberg comes up against some traffic. It
doesn’t hold him up, mind.
Here’s an update from Daniel Johnson:
Quick word on Jenson Button – he’s 13th, and nearly a lap down. Magnussen,
meanwhile, is up in eighth.
Some interesting radio messages between Lewis and his engineer. Is he
toying with Nico? Or just worried that in the final laps Nico will suddenly
close up? Hopefully, as far as the spectacle goes, it’s the latter.
Lap 48 Incredibly Hamilton has used the least amount of fuel than
anyone in the top 10. Vettel, who has been burning up the track, has used
the most with Grosjean a close second.
Lap 47 Rosberg was two tenths of a second quicker than Hamilton that
last lap but he’ll have to produce some stupendously fast laps if he is to
really challenge and deny his team-mate a fourth straight win.
Lap 46 Button is still plodding on out there and unsurprising still
back in 12th place which he’s really made his own. Vettel, who I have to
stress again started in 15th is now up to FIFTH.
Lap 45 Rosberg pits and comes out in traffic with Sutil right in front
of him. He’s a full five seconds off Hamilton with 21 laps to go.
Lap 44 Hamilton feels like the last lap was really slow. ‘Why did you
bring me in’.
Lap 43 Rosberg will be coming in soon, himself so needs to give himself
every chance to get in and out before his team-mate. At this moment, it
looks highly unlikely he’ll be able to put too much pressure on Hamilton.
Lap 42 The Mercedes garage have their tyres back in their blankets, but
he’s come in now. If this pit stop is clean, he’ll surely be on course to
win a fourth successive race with Rosberg still to pit. Hamilton returns
after a slowish pit stop and at about 19 seconds off Rosberg.
Lap 42 World is that Hamilton will be coming in very, very soon. He
opts against it on this lap as he tries to put a little more distance
between himself and the German.
Lap 41 The gap between Hamilton and Rosberg has stretched back out to
3.8 seconds. Ricciardo has a clear track behind the duo a full 30-odd
seconds behind but clear of Bottas in fourth.
Lap 40 There’s plenty of little battles going on behind the leading
two. Massa takes on and eases past Magnussen to move up to eighth while
Vettel is still moving through the field. He’s lying seventh and three
seconds off Alonso.
Lap 39 Hamilton is told by his team that the gap is now 3.6 seconds.
His response: ‘Where have you been for the last few laps’. Yeah, where have
you been! Having a word in Rosberg’s ear instead. No, the reply was: ‘we
were just letting you get through traffic’.
Lap 38 Kobayashi is forced to retire. That’s only the second retirement
of the day so far along with Bianchi.
Lap 37 Vettel locks up as he passes Magnussen. The McLaren driver pulls
back alongside the German, but Vettel isn’t having that and he moves up to
seventh.
Lap 36 Vettel now sets the fastest lap as he moves up to ninth by
passing Massa and is now gaining on Magnussen.
Lap 35 Rosberg has to get the gap down to two seconds before he comes
in again. He’s got it down slightly to just under three, but it’s not going
to be enough.
Lap 34 Kobayashi goes flying into the gravel at the first corner. But
he manages to get back on to the track and is likely to come in to repair
any damage down to the undercarriage at the end of the lap.
Lap 33 Vettel comes in for his second stop and he’s back out in 14th
spot. Talk is that the Mercedes duo are both on a two-stop strategy so it
will come down to what sort of lead Hamilton has. Currently it’s 4.3
seconds.
Lap 32 Ricciardo has just equalled his fastest lap time while Rosberg
posts his quickest lap time yet, a near full second quicker than the
Australian.
Lap 31 Maybe it is mind games between the Mercedes drivers. We saw
cracks appearing in their relationship after qualifying yesterday and it
might well be that Hamilton is laying on the struggles he’s supposedly
having out there. It’s now a gap of 4.4 seconds between the front two with
both drivers matching each other for pace.
Daniel Johnson has the latest from the circuit:
Not masses to report – some of the journalists are just having a stroll
around in the absence of much happening on track.However, Lewis sounds
increasingly agitated over team radio. Could Nico just be managing the gap,
ready to pounce at the end?
Lap 30 Is Lewis telling porkies? Hamilton is stretching his lead out
there despite having ‘problems with his rear end’. During qualifying
yesterday Hamilton told his Mercedes team that they had ‘made the car
worse’. Yet still he pipped Rosberg to pole.
Lap 29 Massa comes in for his second pit stop and is back out in 14th.
It looks like the Williams driver will be no a third-stop strategy. His
team-mate is still flying high up in fourth spot following a great start off
the grid.
Lap 28 Problems for Hamilton, here? Hamilton tells his drivers to ‘help
him out here’ as he struggles on his medium tyres. ‘My rear end is
everywhere’. Rosberg doesn’t appear to have the same difficulties on his
hard tyres.
Lap 27 Vettel, who started in 15th, in moving up the pack to ninth but
Button is 12th and seemingly unable to make any progress. For all their
upgrades since China, while they had appeared to take a step forward earlier
in the weekend, they’re now standing still.
Lap 26 The battle for fifth spot is hotting up as Raikkonen, Grosjean
and Alonso are all involved in a tussle. The Finn is holding his own, but
Alonso is coming and moves up to sixth as Grosjean loses pace.
Lap 25 Hamilton still over three seconds clear of Rosberg while
Raikkonen is up to fifth. Button is back in 12th.
Lap 23 Hamilton is told by his team ‘We need to increase the gap to
about four seconds over the next 20 laps’. Then they hot foot it over to the
radio and on to Rosberg when they tell him he needs to ‘cut the gap on Lewis
to two seconds’ before their next stops. Let’s go racing.
Here’s an update from our man Daniel Johnson:
All quiet on the western front so far. Rosberg is maintaining a decent gap
to Hamilton, so the race for the win is very much still on.
Alonso will be furious at being kept behind Raikkonen – even an earlier pit
stop didn’t do the trick. They could try team orders on the Finn, but they
know he’ll just ignore them…
Lap 22 Rosberg comes in for his first stop, Hamilton is overtaking
Ericsson as Rosberg emerges from the pit, but the Briton gets his nose in
front and is back in the lead. Rosberg ends the lap three seconds off him.
Lap 21 But wait. Hamilton responds with his fastest lap of the race.
Bottas comes in while lying third and comes out in fourth behind Ricciardo.
Lap 20 Rosberg is flying out there with a clean track in front of him.
It looks like he’s on a different strategy to his team-mate and if he can
burn up the track, he could well give himself every chance of edging back
out in front of the Briton when he finally stops.
Lap 19 Both Ferrari’s come in and are battling it out for seventh spot
with Raikkonen edging Alonso.
Lap 18 Hamilton pits as Rosberg sets his best lap yet, he returns to
the track and is back in second – two seconds ahead of Bottas in third.
Lap 17 Hamilton is told that it ‘won’t be long now’ by his team and to
‘push, push, push’. Both Mercedes drivers posted the same time on lap 16.
Ricciardo, meanwhile, moves up to fourth as he goes inside Perez.
Lap 16 Alonso pits and returns in 14th spot as the top order is shaken
up. Bottas remains third ahead of Raikkonen and Hulkenberg. Button is ninth
but hasn’t stopped.
Lap 15 Alonso has moved up to sixth as a result of Ricciardo’s pit stop
but he’s got to go some if he’s going to take that final podium spot today.
Grosjean and Massa both come in for their first pit stops so they enables
the Spaniard to move up the order, but he’s yet to pit.
Lap 14 Gutierrez is struggling out there and is easily passed by
Magnussen as he drops back to 22nd spot. Ricciardo comes in and stays on
medium tyres rather than the hard ones his team-mate changed for.
Lap 13 Vettel was only in the pits for a blink of an eye, and it was a
late call to bring him in. Thinking is that he might be able to make up time
and be ahead of Button after the Briton’s stop.
An amazingly clean start to the race, which Hamilton led comfortably away
from pole.
Encouragingly for this race as a spectacle, Rosberg hasn’t let the gap
increase to more than two seconds. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the pack are
already more than 10 seconds behind Mercedes.
Also predictably, Pastor Maldonado has already received a penalty, for
banging wheels with one of the Caterhams. After his howler in qualifying, I
can’t say I’m surprised.
Not much to cheer about for the home fans – Alonso is tucked up behind Kimi
in 7th. If they try team orders on the Finn, we know he’ll ignore them…
Lap 12 Button nearly lets Vettel in as he goes wider on a corner, but
the Briton soon corrects his mistake and Vettel must bide his time. Vettel
opts to pit at the end of the lap. He’s put on to hard tyres and returns in
21st spot.
Lap 11 Button’s team instruct their man that ‘it’s looking good for
plan A’, whatever that may be. He’s a mighty 32 seconds off his former
team-mate Hamilton but still containing Vettel who appears marginally
quicker.
Lap 10 Last year’s winner Alonso remains back in seventh, where he
started on the grid but he’s all over his team-mate Raikkonen at just
0.3secs behind.
Lap 9 Vettel goes round the outside and passes Gutierrez. It was a
brave move, put it paid off and now he will attempt to chase down and pass
Button, a move he’s yet to pull off today. Maldonado, meanwhile, has been
handed a five second penalty for an earlier collision with Ericsson.
Lap 8 Ricciardo comes over the radio to inform them he’s going to back
off Bottas now. So we know who wears the trousers in that relationship. The
battle for 12th is hotting up as Button passes Gutierrez with Vettel now
behind the Sauber.
Lap 7 Ricciardo ignores team orders and attempts to pass the Williams
driver, without success but it mighty close. Ricciardo’s Red Bull team-mate
Vettel is closing in on Button and hoping to move up to 13th.
Lap 6 Ricciardo is told by his Red Bull team to lay off Bottas and save
his tyres rather than attempt any kind of manoevre, Hamilton is still
pulling away at the front.
Lap 5 A slight collision between Maldonado and Ericsson which occured
on the second lap is being investigated by stewards.
Lap 4 Bottas is now over 5 seconds off the Mercedes two with the battle
for third spicing things up. Ricciardo is only 0.5secs off the Williams
driver and is all over the back of him now. Rosberg, meanwhile, is two
seconds off Hamilton’s tail.
Lap 3 Magnussen was actually forced off by his McLaren team-mate Button
during that opening lap as we watch a replay. Hamilton attempts to put a bit
of a margin between himself and Rosberg.
Lap 2 Button drops back to 13th, one place ahead of Vettel who started
15th on grid after changing his gearbox. Williams’s Bottas is holding his
own in third, still keeping the Red Bull off his tail.
Lap 1 Hamilton and Rosberg both get away cleanly, Williams’s Valtteri
Bottas steals a march on Daniel Ricciardo and edges up to third and puts
pressure on Rosberg. The Mercedes driver keeps him at bay for the first
corner. The Force India’s get off to a good start too, moving up the back.
Magnussen, meanwhile, is forced off the track at turn 14, but his back after
a brief spell on the gravel.
13.02 Lights out…
13.01 Formation lap just finishing and then we’ll be go, go, go…
12.58 Here’s how our F1 correspondent Daniel Johnson sees today’s race
playing out:
It’s impossible to see a Mercedes car not winning today. Even more likely
than some kind of mechanical gremlin is the possibility of Nico and Lewis
banging wheels.
The sun is shining, the Spanish crowd is out in force: it’s good to be back
in Europe.
Elsewhere, Jean Todt, the FIA President, popped up to the press room for a
chat. He was relaxed about almost everything. Cost caps, EU intervention,
the Russian Grand Prix, you name it.
Bernie Ecclestone is also here after his court case on Friday. He met with
the race promoters (they released a totally non-descript press statement),
and it all seems to have been fairly positive but vague. Ways to improve the
show, and so on.
12.50 Hamilton has never won in Barcelona. The last four winners coming
from Mark Webber (2010), Vettel (’11), Maldonado (’12) and Alonso (’13) on
his home patch. Hamilton has also not led the drivers’s championship since
the middle of the 2012 season. So no pressure then Lewis.
12.38 A three-week break since the Chinese Grand Prix was meant to give
teams a chance to regroup, refocus and re-energise their fortunes. The first
leg of the European tour usually is an indication of how the rest of the
season plays out. As yet, little seems to have changed – especially for
McLaren.
McLaren’s developments, which include a revised front-wing and repackaged
rear, have been closely observed over the weekend. And, while initially it
seemed like the Woking outfit had taken a big step forward, the team has
struggled as the weekend has gone on. Jenson Button starts in eighth spot
today, while Kevin Magnussen is back in 14th.
Button said the hot conditions in Barcelona have been a factor for the car.
Here’s today’s forecast.
12.27 Look, I wasn’t lying…
12.23 Coulthard, meanwhile, part of BBC’s coverage in Barcelona, has
opted for a bright blue pair of trousers today…in homage to Manchester
City, perhaps? Eddie Jordan, who is back on our TV screens again (hurrah),
has opted for some Liverpool-esque red trousers. It’s typically BBC that
they always have to be balanced don’t they.
12.15 Hamilton has racked up four poles from a possible five this
season and looks set to win a fourth successive race this lunchtime. No
other driver in F1 history has won four in a row and NOT won the title.
According to David Coulthard, Lewis is in a much-better head space
this season and looks
over-due to a second world title.
The way he dealt with disappointment in Australia was hugely impressive.
Whereas in the past we might have seen a sullen Lewis, this year he took the
positives and has been flawless ever since. We saw controlled aggression to
hold off his team-mate in Bahrain, and displays of dominance in Malaysia and
China.
Formula One has back at centre stage the polite, well-mannered,
enthusiastic young racer who we all knew and liked, that burst on to the
scene in such spectacular fashion all those years ago. As I found, you can
fool others but you cannot fool yourself: happiness comes from within and
Lewis clearly feels happy at this point in life. I believe Niki Lauda,
Mercedes’ F1 chairman and a three-time world champion no less, has been
instrumental in Lewis’s new-found level of commitment. You do not go through
what Niki has been through, on and off track, and not have enormous amounts
of wisdom to impart to someone like Lewis. It is my understanding that over
the winter Lewis spent time with Niki, and he learnt from the man who is
effectively his boss what is required. The transformation has been obvious
from Lewis’s demeanour.
12.00 Afternoon all. If the chances of one final twist in the Premier
League title race later on today appearing slim at least the drama has
continued until the final day of the football season. Already as we prepare
for the fifth installment of the F1 campaign the constructors’s championship
looks a done deal – it’s Mercedes’s title all the way.
With some drivers and teams already conceding defeat to Mercedes, the real
excitement this season is to come in the battle for third spot – and the
battle and change in relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Rosberg had done so well keeping his council this season but tensions started
to show between the pair following a dramatic qualifying session yesterday
when Hamilton pipped his ‘team-mate’ to pole.
“I don’t particularly enjoy coming second to Lewis,” Rosberg said.
To which Hamilton swiftly replied: “We knew that already.”
A fourth successive win for Hamilton today would see him replace his team-mate
at the top of the drivers’s championship – and given that 17 out of 23 races
at the Circuit de Catalunya have gone that way – but for a technical problem
you can’t see beyond a Mercedes one-two again today.
How do you see today’s race going? Who will take third spot, my money is on
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo continuing his fine season.
Our F1 correspondent Daniel Johnson has opted for a top three of Hamilton,
Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. That was, however, we have to add, before
qualifying yesterday which saw him suffer yet further issues with his Red
Bull.
The current world champion starts back in 15th today after being forced to
change his gearbox.
Think you can guess the top three correctly today? Here’s
the latest predictions table.