Nico took his first victory of the 2015 season - the ninth of his Formula One career to date - with a superbly controlled drive from pole position. Lewis recovered from a poor start to clinch the 75th podium of his Grand Prix career in second place thanks to a blistering pair of stints within a bold three stop strategy. Lewis now leads Nico in the Drivers' World Championship by 20 points, with Mercedes AMG Petronas heading Ferrari by 70 points in the Constructors' battle.
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: That feels like two P1 results today after such a demanding race. Nico did the perfect job this afternoon: he had a great start, built the gaps that he needed and made his two-stop strategy work in a fantastic way. He was controlled and composed throughout. Lewis lost a position on the start, then had a slow first pit stop, and that left him stuck behind Vettel's Ferrari in the second stint. At that point, we knew that the only chance of getting past Sebastian was to do something different with the strategy but it was still a bold move to try the three-stopper. It was only going to work if Lewis managed to overtake on track and he made it work with great moves on Räikkönen and Bottas - he was decisive when he needed to be and showed some incredible pace on the prime tyre. As Lewis was building the gap he needed ahead of Sebastian in his third stint, we actually compromised Nico a little bit by leaving him out longer than optimum before his second stop. This made sure the two cars didn't trip over each other on track, while running different strategies, and gave Lewis the clear air he needed to build the gap to secure P2. Following Lewis' final stop, it was clear after a few laps pushing that the pace difference between the cars wasn't big enough for him to challenge for the win, so we then told both drivers to bring the car home. It's a great feeling to take a one-two finish at this circuit, which is a really severe test for the complete car package, and a confirmation that the updates we brought in a number of areas correlated to the track and delivered a good performance improvement. Well done to everybody back at both factories, now we will get our heads down and start working for Monaco.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): We're absolutely delighted with today's result. Nico took an excellent pole yesterday, which put him in prime position to drive a controlled and disciplined race from the front. This is precisely what he did to take a well-earned first win of the season. It's important for us as a team to have two drivers competing and pushing each other - which is exactly what we're seeing again this year - so well done to Nico on a very strong weekend. For Lewis, the race didn't start off well with a lot of wheel spin off the line. From there, it was impossible for him to overtake Sebastian with the very marginal pace advantage we enjoyed in the first stint. We therefore attempted the undercut with an early stop but, unfortunately for Lewis, this didn't work out after a problem with the left rear in the pit stop, so our apologies to him for that. This then required us to pull out something more extreme with the three stop strategy - which seemed like a bit of a long shot at the time. But Lewis' pace on the prime tyre and then again on the second set of options was extraordinary. This enabled him to break free enough to avoid an overtaking situation before the third stop, making it a much more comfortable second place that it could have been. So, a huge congratulations to everyone on an important result to start the European season and a special thanks to everyone at our factories for all their hard work.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "Daniel drove a strong race today, and did a great job to extract everything he could out of the car to finish seventh which is where we are for the moment. Dany had a tricky first lap which landed him in traffic, and as a result used up his tyres fairly quickly and needed an early pit stop. He drove a solid race over the next two stints to cross the line in tenth place. We'll have to wait and see what the outcome of the Stewards is regarding the incident with Carlos."
Thierry Salvi, Renault: "The weekend was focused principally on the reliability of the power units. We limited mileage where we needed to and did not suffer any issues in qualifying or the race, which was the first step we needed to take to recover after the last events. It's obviously not enough to do just this, but we have to get back to form step by step. Everyone at Renault Sport F1 is focused on this and we look forward to being able to work on power unit performance very soon."
Valtteri Bottas finished fourth and Felipe Massa sixth in today's Spanish Grand Prix. Valtteri's long second stint on the option tyre allowed the team to change from a three-stop to a two-stop race, helping him to keep the closing Ferrari of Räikkönen at bay in the final laps. Felipe managed to make up positions in the opening stint and drove an untroubled and consistent race to collect eight points for the team.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: Overall I'm pleased with the result today. The car has shown pretty good pace throughout the weekend and we wanted to see if we could convert that potential into points. There was a lot of talk about different teams bringing updates for this race with big gains. We have shown that our improvements have moved us forwards and this ended up being our closest finish to Ferrari. It was a good job by the aerodynamic team and all the people back at Grove, as well as an excellent operational performance from the team today, with good strategy choices and well executed pitstops. We need to keep heading in this direction and to keep finding additional performance gains in this package to help us challenge for podiums in future.
Maurizio Arrivabene: "The comparison of the two aerodynamic configurations in the race clearly shows that Sebastian's car was going very well versus Kimi's. But we need to improve. The gap to Mercedes is there and we need to analyze our data to understand the reasons. We're not blind to the fact that we were losing about half a second in T3 only, which puts a premium on traction, and we must find out whether this depends on the nature of the track or on our faults. Strategy-wise, we took an aggressive approach by having Seb stop only twice for tyres. If we had gone for a three-stopper, things wouldn't have changed or would have been even worse. The numbers tell us that the new solutions are good, the reality shows that they are not good enough. We did make a step forward, but it was supposed to be a jump. I am not blaming anyone in particular, I am taking my own responsibilities. We need to work harder".
This was a difficult afternoon for the whole team. Fernando Alonso retired with a rear brake problem on lap 26. His race ended during a precautionary pit-stop - to examine the rear end and change tyres - which resulted in the car losing stopping power and ploughing on through the box. Fortunately, the quick wits of our front-jack man saw him leap to safety, and no-one was injured. Fernando's steady progress into the top 10 came to an end, however.
While the team will thoroughly trace the cause, the mechanics discovered a tear-off visor covering the right-rear brake duct when they investigated the car's rear corner in the garage.
While Jenson Button made it to the finish, he too endured a disappointing race. He made a slow getaway, and quickly reported that his car was handling poorly, oversteering and wheel-spinning under power. Despite working with the team over the radio to find a solution, he failed to make headway, and ultimately finished 16th on a three-stop strategy.
Eric Boullier, Racing director: "For all at McLaren, a team that has won the Spanish Grand Prix no fewer than eight times in our illustrious history, it's superfluous to state that this afternoon has been a more than somewhat disappointing one.
"Fernando was running reasonably well until his race was abruptly terminated by an as-yet-unspecified rear brake problem that caused him to overshoot our pit-box. That was irksome for all of us, Fernando in particular, but more important is that no-one was hurt.
"As for Jenson, he too had a vexatious afternoon, losing ground right from the start and complaining of poor rear traction thereafter. He eventually finished 16th.
"We arrived in Spain with robust but measured ambitions: to manage both our cars through to Q2 in qualifying and to score world championship points for the first time this year. The former objective we achieved; the latter we did not.
"Disappointing it was, but disheartening it isn't. Yes, we'd all be more sanguine if progress could be made more expeditiously; equally, and importantly, our underlying pace is improving with every race.
"In two weeks' time we'll be in Monaco, on whose famously serpentine Tarmac we'll be hoping to fare appreciably better than we did here in Barcelona today. McLaren has won at the Principality more often than has any other marque - 15 times to be precise - and, although we aren't anticipating notching up victory number 16 there this year, I won't shy away from proclaiming here and now that we'll be aiming to score world championship points on May 24th."
Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport: "It has been a very disappointing weekend, but, sometimes, that's the reality of racing.
"On a more positive note, Fernando's race pace was very good. We'll now analyse all the data and continue to improve driveability for the next race at Monaco. That will be key to progress around the slow street circuit."
Today's Spanish Grand Prix saw Sergio Perez finish in P13 ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg in P15.
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "I think we can be content with today's race despite finishing outside the points. Our pace was more convincing than our qualifying performance, which allowed us to battle against the Saubers and McLarens, but anything more was just outside our reach. We chose early on to split the strategies so that we had the opportunity to make the most of any unexpected developments, but as the race was fairly uneventful, both drivers ended up pretty much in the same place. The main regret is the amount of time Nico lost behind Maldonado in the middle of the race, which again proved how difficult it is to overtake here - even with a tyre advantage and DRS. Looking at the championship table, we are only eight points adrift of fifth place, and we are now one step closer to our big upgrade package, which is encouraging for everyone in the team."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "We had a very good qualifying performance yesterday, finishing fifth and sixth, which meant we started today's race in a good position. In the first stint we were simply too slow on the straight and therefore we couldn't do much to avoid being overtaken by a few of our direct competitors. As in the second stint on Prime tyres we lost too much time, we decided to change our strategy for the last part of the race, where Carlos went out on Option tyres and Max on Prime. This generated a very good fight at the end, especially from Carlos' side, who did a good maneuver against Daniil Kvyat and I think he deserved this ninth position. I'm satisfied with our qualifying performance, but now we have to work and also improve our race pace."
"The team will now remain here in Barcelona for the two-day test. On Tuesday it will be Red Bull Junior Team driver Pierre Gasly at the wheel of the car, while Carlos will drive the following day before heading to Monaco, where we hope we can show a further improvement."
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): "We are pleased to score a couple of points here after the disappointing weekend in Bahrain. We put a lot of effort in at Viry to bring reliability updates, which proved to be successful. Both power units worked well over the weekend and helped the team find a good set-up for qualifying. We were expecting a bit more today following the great performance yesterday so we have to understand why we lost out compared to our direct competitors, but we'll push with the team in the next races to bring more performance to the cars."
Romain Grosjean drove a measured and accomplished Spanish Grand Prix to finish eighth despite a mid-race loss of fourth gear, whilst a strong run from Pastor Maldonado was compromised by an additional pit stop to modify damaged bodywork, after which he subsequently retired.
Romain started from P11 on the grid on fresh medium compound tyres, changing to new mediums on lap 15 and new hard tyres on lap 40. Pastor started from P12 on the grid on new medium compound tyres, changing to new mediums on lap 14 then new hards on lap 43. He made an additional pit stop for damaged bodywork to be modified on lap 15 and retired at the end of lap 45.
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "Both our drivers put in really strong performances today, with Romain finishing in eighth despite a gearbox issue and Pastor driving relentlessly before we retired him, but the real heroes today were the pit crew. Our pit box proved slippery causing Romain to stop long, resulting in three of the crew being slightly worse for wear, but nevertheless they were back in action for the subsequent stops. This is another endorsement of Enstone's never give up spirit and we know the guys will be fighting fit for Monaco."
Nick Chester, Technical Director: "That was an eventful race for us. It was a good result for Romain with another four points in the bag despite an issue with the gearbox which he managed well. Pastor was looking quick but we had to pit him to remove some damaged bodywork. The extra stop proved too much of a penalty as despite him setting strong lap times, we weren't able to work back up the order so we retired the car to avoid any additional damage."
By finishing 12th (Nasr) and 14th (Ericsson) at the Spanish Grand Prix, the Sauber F1 Team achieved the maximum considering what is currently possible. Both drivers put in a solid performance which did not reward the Swiss team with points. Directly after the Spanish Grand Prix the Sauber F1 Team will work on the performance of the Sauber C34-Ferrari during the test days on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "We already had a difficult situation for the start with 15th and 16th. That's why there was no more we could achieve today. Our drivers put in a solid performance. Now we need to focus on the next race in Monaco, a track that should suit our car better."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "After a difficult qualifying we expected not to have an easy race. The change from a three to a two stop strategy didn't help us much. During testing on Tuesday and Wednesday we will continue to improve the performance of the Sauber C34-Ferrari."
The Manor Marussia F1 Team achieved its third consecutive two car finish today as Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi ended the 66-lap Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2015 in 17th and 18th positions.
John Booth, Team Principal: "Both drivers did a good job and we are obviously very pleased with the reliability of the cars. Clearly there is some work to do, but our development programme is still in its infancy, so race finishes are key for providing the information we need. The next race should be a bit better and of course it is a very special venue for us, as the track where Jules achieved our first two Constructors' Championship points one year ago."
A variety of different two-stop and three-stop strategies characterised the battle for the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix sponsored by Pirelli: a closely poised race where tyre strategy made a crucial difference.
While Nico Rosberg led from start to finish for the first time all year, stopping just twice, his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton went head-to-head against Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel on opposing tyre strategies.
Hamilton adopted a three-stop strategy, after dropping some places at the start. Vettel stuck with a two-stop strategy meaning that he had to hold of Hamilton's faster car in the closing stages of the race, once more guaranteeing a thrilling finale.
Rosberg used the medium-medium-hard strategy that we predicted as being the most likely scenario before the start of the race, eventually winning by half a minute. In fact, all the drivers chose to start the grand prix on the medium tyre, which was up to 1.5 seconds faster than the hard compound in Friday's second free practice session.
Hamilton, however, converted to a three-stopper - with two opening stints on the medium and then a penultimate stint on the hard tyre, which gave him the flexibility not to have to stop again if necessary. Williams driver Felipe Massa was the only driver to use the same strategy as Hamilton, ending up sixth from ninth on the grid.
After a disappointing qualifying, Kimi Raikkonen adopted an alternative two-stop strategy. The Finn used the hard tyre for his middle stint with the aim of benefitting from the extra speed of the medium at the end of the race, in a battle against his countryman Valtteri Bottas (Williams).
With wear and degradation very much in line with expectations, both two and three stops were equally possible, with drivers and teams able to adapt their strategies to suit their particular race circumstances.
The teams will now remain in Barcelona for the first in-season test on Tuesday and Wednesday, where a number of third drivers will be taking the wheel as well as the regular pilots.
Paul Hembery: "Strategy was clearly at the forefront of the Spanish Grand Prix, with a fascinating and complex battle between Mercedes and Ferrari. The nominations we made opened up a number of different possibilities, enabling each team to make the most of their potential. Despite the demanding conditions of the Montmelo track and significant track temperatures, both compounds performed perfectly, showed very little graining and no blistering, helping every driver to maximise his chosen strategy. We look forward now to the test, which will help us gather more data to shape future tyre development."
Truth-O-Meter
We predicted a two-stopper as the most likely winning scenario for the 66-lap race, and this is what Rosberg went for. Our prediction said that after starting on medium, it would be quickest to stop for mediums again on lap 23 and then hard tyres on lap 50. In the end, Rosberg followed the pattern we predicted but stopped on laps 15 and 44.
