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What has been a thrilling start to the 2018 Formula 1 season could grind to a coma-inducing halt on Sunday. Alas, the formbook repeatedly shows the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is conducive of processional racing due to the lack of on-track overtaking opportunities its dated configuration offers.
Resultantly the history books show 12 of the last 15 winners in Barcelona have won the race from pole-position. Quite literally, once leading there is little chance you will be overtaken anywhere/anytime other than during a pit-stop.
It all bodes well for Ferrari this weekend. Their No. 1 pilot, Sebastian Vettel, is on a sequence of three consecutive pole’s and his car was clearly way ahead of its rivals during two weeks of pre-season testing herein February/March.
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Naturally, safety car intervention could scupper anyone’s chances but, once again, the stats make for grim reading for those craving another action-packed race.
A full safety car (not the ‘virtual’ variety) has been needed just once here in the past eight years. That was in 2016 when Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg famously collided on the opening lap. It presented Max Verstappen with his maiden Formula 1 victory in his first drive for Red Bull.
Lightning cannot strike but Max can
Not even the weather is expected to add some spice to the Spanish Grand Prix. The forecast is for sunny/cloudy conditions, 20 degrees and no chance of rain. It seems our only hope, and the chance of two Ferraris, two Red Bulls and two Mercedes doing anything other than filling the top six spots, is Max Verstappen.
The young Dutch pilot has been over-exuberant on more than one occasion this season, most notably in China when he collided with Sebastian Vettel, and last time in Baku when he firstly hit his teammate and then induced a rear-ending collision which concluded his and Daniel Ricciardo’s race. And if he produces more of the same, he could give us a semblance of an upset while ruining someone’s race in the process.
