2007 Spanish Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 4 of 17 in the 2007 Formula One season | |||
Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona
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| Date | 13 May 2007 | ||
| Official name | XLIX Gran Premio de España Telefónica | ||
| Location | Circuit de Catalunya Barcelona, Spain |
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| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 4.655 km (2.892 mi) | ||
| Distance | 65 laps, 302.449 km (187.934 mi) | ||
| Scheduled Distance | 66 laps, 307.164 km (190.938 mi) | ||
| Weather | Sunny and warm | ||
| Attendance | 140,700 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||
| Time | 1:21.421 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Felipe Massa
|
Ferrari | |
| Time | 1:22.680 on lap 14 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Ferrari | ||
| Second | McLaren-Mercedes | ||
| Third | McLaren-Mercedes | ||
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The 2007 Gran Premio de España Telefónica was a Formula One motor race, fourth round of the 2007 Formula One season, won by Felipe Massa. It was held on 13 May 2007 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.
Prior to the Spanish Grand Prix, the Circuit de Catalunya went through some circuit revisions to encourage overtaking and make the racing more exciting and also to improve safety standards. The revisions included a chicane placed at the final two corners. "Although I have always really enjoyed the final two corners and their speed, the new chicane at the end of the track will hopefully lead to more overtaking during the race, which is great for the spectators," Fernando Alonso commented. Because of the revisions, the fastest lap of the race, (recorded by Massa), was fractionally over six seconds longer than the fastest lap of the race in 2006, (also recorded by Massa).
Just over a week before the weekend of the grand prix, there was an organised test session at the track for four days, with primary focus on aerodynamic set-ups. However, due to heavy rain on the Tuesday, many teams abandoned their initial test schedule and instead looked to focus on wet-weather set-ups. Both Ferrari and Red Bull took advantage of these conditions and scored first and second fastest times respectively on both Tuesday and Wednesday. The wet weather eventually led to a fourth day of testing, in which Red Bull driver David Coulthard broke Ferrari's run and set the fastest time by 0.2 seconds.
The aerodynamic focus was evident in the unveiling of two new and radical front aero designs by both the Honda and McLaren teams. Both teams would be understandably reluctant to release figures to support their reasoning for using such radical winglets, although McLaren's consistent speed throughout the testing is noted by only having out-paced championship rivals Ferrari once. Honda, however, ended up half a second down on the nearest car on the final day of testing where they unveiled their "elephant ear" winglets. McLaren punctuated their need for aero testing over rain testing by withdrawing on the rained-out Tuesday.
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Wikipedia