Spanish Grand Prix 2015: 5 Bold Predictions for Catalunya Race
With Lewis Hamilton 27 points clear of his nearest rival after just four races, a victory for someone else in the forthcoming 2015 Spanish Grand Prix would breathe a little bit of life back into the title fight.
The defending champion is favourite to win and rightly so, but it's not a foregone conclusion. Nico Rosberg has been strong at the Circuit de Catalunya in recent years, and there's reason to believe that he will be the man topping the podium on Sunday.
Kimi Raikkonen may also have cause to celebrate, though it's unlikely he'll be chasing a first win since the start of 2013. The Finn is on a roll after Bahrain and will be itching to again take the fight to Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Could he come out on top for the second time in as many races?
Read on to see how we think that fight will be decided, along with further predictions for the weekend ahead.
Nico Rosberg Will Win
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Lewis Hamilton has had it all his own way at Mercedes in 2015. Four pole positions have been followed by three wins and a second place—with team-mate Nico Rosberg behind on every occasion.
The result is a 27-point lead for the defending champion, but Rosberg has tended to be strong around the Circuit de Catalunya in recent years. He took pole in 2013, and though Hamilton won last year, Rosberg was quicker.
Overtaking is difficult at the Barcelona venue, so qualifying will probably be the deciding factor.
By rediscovering his impressive single-lap form from 2014, Rosberg has every chance of taking his first pole—and win—of 2015.
Kimi Raikkonen Will Beat Sebastian Vettel
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Kimi Raikkonen finished ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain—the first time he has managed it all year.
Vettel's error when trying to hold off Nico Rosberg made it easier for the Finn, but it's highly likely Raikkonen would have come out on top regardless. He was substantially quicker from the end of the first stint onward and looked especially good on the medium-compound tyres.
Though it's by no means a given that this advantage will follow over to Spain—where the medium will again be used, this time alongside the hard—Raikkonen proved he has rediscovered at least some of his old form after a difficult 2014.
With the added incentive of needing a result to avoid slipping toward a No. 2 role, he looks a good bet to beat Vettel again in Barcelona.
Pastor Maldonado Will Finally Score a Point
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It's unusual for Pastor Maldonado to be on the receiving end of sympathy—but no one has had worse luck in 2015 than he has.
Felipe Nasr accidentally punted him into the wall on the outside of the second corner in Australia, and Valtteri Bottas gave Maldonado a first-lap puncture in Malaysia. Jenson Button whacked him up the rear end in China, and Max Verstappen's team radio—transcribed on F1 Fanatic—suggests he had a coming-together with the Venezuelan on the first lap in Bahrain.
None of those collisions appear to have been his fault.
Maldonado hasn't exactly helped himself—he made two big errors in China, ran into Felipe Massa in Bahrain and has been outqualified by Romain Grosjean in every grand prix so far.
But he's usually had decent pace and surely the worm has to turn sooner or later. He won at the Circuit de Catalunya in 2012; that won't happen this year, but he'll surely put a point or two on the board.
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Two Renault Power Units Will Fail
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Two of the four Renault-powered cars failed to make it to the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix—one with a power-unit fault, the other with a loose wheel.
A third crossed the line halfway through a massive engine failure, smoke billowing across the track and ruining many views of the post-race fireworks, while the fourth had his power-unit trouble in qualifying.
The French manufacturer has had three weeks to work on whatever caused those problems, but as Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted to the official F1 website, there are no quick fixes in sight.
So a 50 percent failure rate in Spain seems a reasonable expectation—and this should help the final prediction come true...
McLaren Will Be in the Points Too
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McLaren have made their worst-ever start to a season—and for a team whose history goes back to 1966, that's quite an achievement.
But Fernando Alonso didn't look out of place fighting for the final few points-paying positions in Bahrain. He finished 11th there, and Honda have had three weeks since to get on top of their power-unit issues.
That's nowhere near enough time to solve everything, but they don't need a huge step to go from 11th to 10th.
Providing their cars last the distance, Alonso and Jenson Button can take advantage of others falling by the wayside—and one of them will score the team's first points of 2015.
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