The Catalunia circuit (near Barcelona) is very familiar to all Formula 1 folks, as it is the scene of their allowed ration of winter testing. But perched in the high northeast corner of Spain, with a sea and a mountain chain close to hand, its weather while basically warm is given to variable and flukey winds that can upset a car quite unpredictably. Nevertheless the conditions are the same for all drivers, and they know what they are up against, so it's fair to draw conclusions from these resuts:
12 14 May 2017 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Catalunya
Qualifying
Pos No Driver Car Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:20.511 1:20.210 1:19.149 12
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:20.939 1:20.295 1:19.200 16
3 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:20.991 1:20.300 1:19.373 15
4 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.742 1:20.621 1:19.439 14
5 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:21.430 1:20.722 1:19.706 12
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:21.704 1:20.855 1:20.175 12
7 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 1:22.015 1:21.251 1:21.048 15
8 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:21.998 1:21.239 1:21.070 14
9 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:22.138 1:21.222 1:21.232 15
10 31 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:21.901 1:21.148 1:21.272 17
11 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:21.945 1:21.329 13
12 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:21.941 1:21.371 12
13 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:22.091 1:21.397 12
14 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:21.822 1:21.517 13
15 94 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber Ferrari 1:22.327 1:21.803 15
16 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:22.332 9
17 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:22.401 6
18 18 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:22.411 7
19 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 1:22.532 9
20 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:22.746 6
The Ferraris and Mercedes obviously have the measure of each other. In fact notice that all five cars in the first three rows qualified within the same second, with the sixth a couple of hundredths outside. A slight variation in the strength of the headwind entering the start could account for that. These cars and drivers are very evenly matched.
Nigel Mansell once said that qualifying before the home crowd wa s worth a second a lap. Fernando Alonso's brilliant seventh was his best grid position of the season and the first time this year he made it into Q3. Looks like Nigel had it right.
Once again Felipe Massa split the two Force Indias, though his young new Canadian teammate has yet to find his feet. Hass, Renault, Toro Rosso and Sauber had their private battles below the points positions.
So it looks like we are in for a hotly contested race as everyone wants to get a head start into the European part of the championship, and there is no shortsage of human or mechanical talent ready to battle it out.