PREVIEW: The 2018 Spanish Grand Prix

Formula 1 racing returns to the Circuit de Catalunya this weekend. The weather will be in stark contrast to that experienced in Barcelona during pre-season testing. The race will begin at 14:10 (UK time) on Sunday. Get yourself ready and strapped in to discover the next chapter of this crazy F1 season!

The 47th running of the Spanish Grand Prix began with Lewis Hamilton on pole as he began to turn up the heat on Sebastian Vettel. This advantage didn’t last long as Vettel found a better start to lead the pack into corner 1. It’s this corner that sparked the biggest talking point of the race as Bottas, Raikkonen and Verstappen all collided. The Red Bull and Ferrari retired whilst the Mercedes continued carrying damage.

Ferrari brought race-leader Vettel in first to cover off the undercut. Hamilton rejoined the track 7 seconds behind the Italian car after his pit-stop. Bottas held Vettel up as much as possible before Vettel retained the lead, now just 4 seconds in front of Lewis. The VSC came out with 30 laps to go in which Hamilton made his second pitstop. Vettel made the move just as the VSC was ending. To the fans delight, Sebastian came out right next to Lewis and banged wheels. On lap 44, the Brit managed to overtake Vettel and held on for the race win. This win reduced Vettel’s Championship lead to 6 points.

1. Lewis Hamilton 1:35:56.497

2. Sebastian Vettel      +3.490

3. Daniel Ricciardo     +1:15.820

It’s the Spanish Grand Prix and in typical style, many teams are bringing significant upgrades. This makes any sort of predictions/expectations tricky to make.

Let's be honest, it’s a huge weekend for Red Bull. After crashing in Baku, they’ll want to bounce back as strongly as they can. They have some upgrades which are almost certain to develop the car and Verstappen has won on this track. Ricciardo also made the podium last year giving an expectation of at least one top-three finish.

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton have removed a pestering monkey from their backs. But this hasn’t increased the expectations in the Silver Arrows garage. Not only are we back on a more traditional race track, it looked as if Ferrari was still the fastest car. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the W09 trailing the Ferrari once more.

There’s been lots of talk regarding McLaren and their upgrades ahead of the race this weekend. Alonso will be on a buzz after winning his first race in WEC. With the upgrade, I suppose there’s going to be plenty of eyes on the McLaren car. Australia demonstrated promise, and the team will be hoping this grows from now on because the last few weeks haven’t been where we expected the car to be.

It’s forecast to be dry in every session across the weekend. This doesn’t come without some possible rain through the night and early hours of Sunday morning. A green track could make the race even more exciting. But the track will dry out in time for lights out as constant sunshine and 16c is expected for race time.

Put simply, it’s a hard race to predict. The 2018 season has been anything but a Mercedes 1-2 and fans are happy to see this. Kimi Raikkonen has been on the podium almost throughout the season and is long overdue a race win. But will Ferrari put him on the best strategy? I very much doubt it.

Having said that, Vettel has made a few mistakes so far this season. But the German is too good not to make amends. We predict that he will win the race, with a Ferrari 1-2. On these sorts of tracks, the Ferrari car has been dominant this season.

Red Bull redemption will be well underway. Let’s not forget, the engines are starting to get old now. They’ll be hoping for a podium but you can’t count Lewis Hamilton from clinching the 3rd place finish to keep in the battle for the Championship.

McLaren will be hoping to reap rewards from their upgrade and Alonso’s buzz gives us an incline he’ll be able to force his car into the top 5.

1. Sebastian Vettel

2. Kimi Raikkonen

3. Lewis Hamilton

4. Daniel Ricciardo

5. Fernando Alonso

That's what we think that will happen, but what do you think? Let us know in the comment section below!