The Spanish Grand Prix is a Formula One race currently held at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, as part of the annual Formula One championship season.
Work on the Circuit de Catalunya was underway in Barcelona, and in 1991, the event moved to this new track, where it has remained since. The 1992 event was advertised as the Grand Prix of the Olympic Games. Since that race the race has been held in early season, usually in late April or early May.

Catalunya (c) Wikimedia

The Williamses dominated the first outings there, taking all victories until 1994. Michael Schumacher has won a total of six times, including his 1996 victory in heavy rain, which was his first for Ferrari. Mika Häkkinen took three victories and was on road for fourth in 2001 before his car failed on the last lap.

Since 2003 the race has been well attended thanks to success of Fernando Alonso. Alonso finished second in 2003 and 2005 before taking victory in 2006.

Free Practice:
Being one of the quickest on track, the team was confident for a good point scoring match, even hoping for a podium finish.

‘The car felt good, it was very stable, almost no understeer, and it could really be pushed through Turn 3 without any problems.’

Testing the race pace went pretty good, we kept improving all along, and gaining more confidence in the car each lap.

Qualifying:
Finding a good spot to put the qualifying lap was quite hard, since it was a bit busy on track, everyone trying to do as much laps as possible.
In the end, we were quite satisfied with the lap we were able to put down, having a good starting position, and ready to attack for the lead.

‘It was kind of hard to find a gap between two other cars, but we managed to find a very good gap, and I could really push myself then, I managed to start from the fourth place, with a time of 1 minute 19.896.’

Race:
Going into the race with a good grid position, we hoped we could really catch up with the people in front again, points wise, since the last few races made us drop back a bit.
The race was going really well, pitted just once, when in lap 22 disaster struck whilst attacking Malcolm Rice, when entering turn 14, Michael hit the inside kerb too much, which lifted up his car, and spun him around. He than set there with a car unable to move, with Nick Oldenhuis too close to avoid him. They both lost their front wings and their front-right wheels, which caused them to retire from the race.

‘The race was going really well, car felt good, had a reasonably high pace, and I really liked the progress throughout the track. Unfortunately with the accident I did not only ruin my own race, but also my team mates race, Nick Oldenhuis.’