The 2004 Spanish Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Gran Premio Marlboro de España 2004) was a Formula One motor race held on 9 May 2004 at the Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló, Spain. It was Race 5 of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship. The 66-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher for the Ferrari team. His teammate Rubens Barrichello finished second with Jarno Trulli third in a Renault car.
Report
Background Heading into the fifth race of the season, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher was leading the World Drivers' Championship with 40 points; Rubens Barrichello was second on 24 points, 16 points behind Schumacher. Behind Schumacher and Barrichello in the Drivers' Championship, BAR driver Jenson Button was third on 23 points, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Fernando Alonso on 18 and 16 points respectively. In the World Constructors' Championship, Ferrari were leading on 64 points and Renault were second on 31 points, with Williams third on 27 points.
Friday drivers The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.
Constructor Nat Driver BAR-Honda Anthony Davidson Sauber-Petronas - Jaguar-Cosworth Björn Wirdheim Toyota Ricardo Zonta Jordan-Ford Timo Glock Minardi-Cosworth Bas Leinders
Practice and qualifying Four practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday, and two on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted an hour. The third and final practice sessions were held on Saturday morning and lasted 45 minutes.
The qualifying session was run as a one-lap session and took place on Friday and Saturday afternoon. The cars were run one at a time; the Friday running order was determined with the Championship leading heading out first. The Saturday running order was determined by times set in Friday afternoon qualifying with the fastest heading out last and the slowest running first. The lap times from the Friday afternoon session did not determine the grid order.
Race The race started at 14:00 local time. During the warm-up lap of the race, a man calling himself Jimmy Jump ran through the starting grid, only to be apprehended soon by the security. While he claimed to have many fans (due to his other performances at football matches), he was criticized for risking the lives of the drivers, even though the cars were still travelling at low speed at this point.
Michael Schumacher dominated a largely uneventful race leading home his team-mate Rubens Barrichello. The most notable result was that of the McLaren team, with their drivers Kimi Räikkönen and David Coulthard finishing a lap down and outside of the points scoring positions, a far cry from their usual championship-contending performance.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver ConstructorQ1 Time Q2 Time Gap Grid 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari1:16.320 1:15.022 — 1 2 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW1:15.574 1:15.639 +0.617 2 3 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda1:16.434 1:15.809 +0.787 3 4 7 Jarno Trulli Renault1:16.156 1:16.144 +1.122 4 5 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari1:16.655 1:16.272 +1.250 5 6 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW1:16.040 1:16.293 +1.271 6 7 17 Olivier Panis Toyota1:16.168 1:16.313 +1.291 7 8 8 Fernando Alonso Renault1:17.011 1:16.422 +1.400 8 9 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth1:16.212 1:16.514 +1.492 9 10 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes1:16.465 1:16.636 +1.614 10 11 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota1:16.758 1:17.038 +2.016 11 12 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas1:15.746 1:17.444 +2.422 12 13 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes1:16.240 1:17.445 +2.423 13 14 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda1:16.462 1:17.575 +2.553 14 15 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford1:17.043 1:17.802 +2.780 15 16 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth1:17.863 1:17.812 +2.790 16 17 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas1:15.771 1:17.866 +2.844 17 18 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth1:20.372 1:19.817 +4.795 18 19 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford1:17.965 1:20.607 +5.585 19 20 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth1:21.620 1:21.470 +6.448 20
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 66 1:27:32.841 1 10 2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 66 +13.290 5 8 3 7 Jarno Trulli Renault 66 +32.294 4 6 4 8 Fernando Alonso Renault 66 +32.952 8 5 5 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 66 +42.327 3 4 6 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 66 +1:13.804 6 3 7 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 66 +1:17.108 12 2 8 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 65 +1 Lap 14 1 9 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 65 +1 Lap 17 10 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 10 11 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 13 12 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 65 +1 Lap 9 13 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota 65 +1 Lap 11 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 51 Power steering 19 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 46 Brakes 2 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 43 Throttle 16 17 Olivier Panis Toyota 33 Hydraulics 7 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 33 Hydraulics 15 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 31 Spin 18 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 17 Spin 20
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings +/– Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 50 2 Rubens Barrichello 32 3 Jenson Button 24 1 4 Fernando Alonso 21 1 5 Jarno Trulli 21Source:
Constructors' Championship standings +/– Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 82 2 Renault 42 1 3 BAR-Honda 32 1 4 Williams-BMW 30 5 McLaren-Mercedes 5Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also 2004 Barcelona F3000 round
References