By Bayagbon Anthony M
The Spanish Grand Prix which is the traditional curtain-raiser to the European season is coming up this weekend (8th – 10th May, 2015) in the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. This race weekend (the 5th this 2015 season) promises thrill and fun especially for sport fans who love high speed intelligent sport with lots of technicalities and strategies that keeps the mind working.

The Track

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a 4.655km track in Barcelona Spain. F1 has been hosting grand prix on this circuit since ‘1991 and will host a grand prix for the 25th time this weekend.

The track has a mix of sixteen high and low speed corners, plus its abrasive and rather bumpy track surface, makes for a physically and mechanically taxing race in completing the 66Laps, 307.104km race. Fastest lap record of 1:21.670 is held by Kimi Räikkönen in 2008

Lewis Hamilton popping champagne and Sebastian Vettel

With two DRS zones on the straight between turn 9 and 10 and also between turn 16 and 1 providing flat out racing and exciting over takings at speed of 318km/hr.

Constructor/Driver to watch

The 2015 season has so far been a straight fight between Mercedes and Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton winning three races of the four so far and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari winning one. Ferrari has 11 wins in the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and also the man with the fastest lap in Kimi, while Mercedes can boast of the 2014 race winner Lewis in its fold

Lewis Hamilton the double world champion is the bookies favorite to make it four wins out of five races this 2015 season. Still the richest sportsman in Britain with a fortune of £88m and presently in contract negotiation with Mercedes for a new deal that could be worth £27m a year Lewis seems to have everything going right for him at the moment and this is translating to superb performance on the track with man and machine unifying as one unstoppable force.

Report has it that the Formula One world champion’s relationship with his on/off girlfriend of seven years Nicole Scherzinger has reportedly hit the wall after his 2014 world championship victory and his failure to commit to her

Unlike Lewis, Nico Rosberg is having a difficult start to the new 2015 season, pretty much the same way he ended the 2014 season. Presently trailing his team mate with 27 point, Rosberg seem to be having confidence issues thus resulting in mistake that creates difficulty in putting a superb lap together in Q3 to give him opportunity to be on pole position for a race which brightens his chances of winning. With 170 races to his name, Rosberg would be keen to add to his 8 career wins.

Sebastian Vettel has put behind him a difficult 2014 season in which the former Red Bull Racing driver finished the season without a win and was dominated by his then team mate Daniel Riccardo. Now with Ferrari , Vettel has shown once again why he a four time world champion with a race win, two third place finishes and a fifth place, trailing Nico by a single point in the driver championship. Not many will bet against Vettel securing more race wins to add to the 40 career wins he already has considering the upward performance trend of the Ferrari team.

Dark Horse

35years old Kimi Räikkönen (Oldest driver on the Grid) of Ferrari Constructors team was a surprise second place in the Bahrain Grand Prix mainly due to excellent tire strategy. A repeat of such genius where he pitted one less stop than the front runner thus saving 25 seconds pit time can see him stage another impressive upset. This is a strategy mostly employed by Kimi during his days with Lotus team due to his gentle driving style whereby he seem to preserve his tires more than most other drivers

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa of the Williams team uses the same engine power as the Mercedes team which has proven to be dominant since 2014 season. So far this season, they have not been able to match the 2014 performance level

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing was the revelation of 2014 season picking up 3 wins with the RBR as the only other driver to win a race that season apart from the Mercedes duo of Lewis and Nico. If Ricciardo can put together a perfect race weekend like in 2014, then a podium place is a possibility.

Spanish Crowd Support

The Spanish crowd will undoubtedly be rooting for home boy Fernando Alonso who has endured a difficult season since switching from Ferrari to McLaren in 2015. Alonso with 238 races, 32 race wins and two world championship trophy is considered by many as one of the best driver presently on the grid but has really been struggling so far in 2015 mainly due to reliability and drivability of the MP4-30.

Alonso recently signed a 3years contract worth £25m per year with underperforming McLaren-Honda team. The deal is reportedly devoid of any opt-out clauses that would enable the Spaniard to leave if a more attractive seat became available thus prompting former team-mate Jarno Trulli to say that Fernando Alonso might not experience winning again in Formula 1.

The Spanish crowd would cheer their homeboy especially if he utilizes any opportunity to overtake at the turn ten hairpin or DRS zones during the race and thrill the home crowd. However, avoiding being lapped and slotting somewhere in the lower part of the top 10 would be a significant improvement for Alonso this season

The stats below are definitely not good music to the ears of the Barcelona-Catalunya F1 fans. Without a single point this season, it’s all gloom for Fernando.