1. Will Mercedes’ Spanish dominance continue?

Mercedes hasn’t been beaten in qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya since 2012, so Red Bull has i🦹ts work cut out for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton has won every Spanish GP since 2017, while Max Ver♕stappen’s best result in Barcelona came in 2016, winning the race after Hamilton and then-teammate Nico Rosberg collided on the opening lap.

All the historical data points ♒towards a Mercedes victory, but why could this year be di💯fferent?

At present, it appears Red Bull has the fastest car over one lap - desp꧙ite Mercede🔥s claiming pole in the last two races, while the reigning world champions have the edge in race trim, especially on the harder compounds.

All but four of the last 20 Spanish Grands Prix have been won from pole position so Verstappen will have to ti🐓dy up his Q3 displays.

Looking at last year’s qualifyꦛing session, Verstappen qualified third, 0.6s shy ꧋of Hamilton’s benchmark.

Red Bull lost out mostly in the first two-thir𒉰ds of the lap, 0.3s🍷 in the middle sector alone in qualifying, which consists of the high-speed Turn 9 section. 

The RB16B has consistently outpᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚerformed the Mercedes W12 in high-speed corners and with Honda making gains in the powe♛r unit area, relative to 2020, the battle for pole will come down to the tight and twisty final chicane.

Sector three has been Mercedes territory in recent years - Hamilton in particular is a master of the mickey-mouse final c🐟hicane. 

The mixture of high and l♏ow-sp꧃eed corners throughout the lap should mean the advantage between the two top teams ebbs and flows.

Mercedes are likely favouri൩tes but Red Bull will be right there with themꦏ.

2. Can Norris continue his top five streak?

Lando Norris has been one of the stars of the season and has finished in the top five a🐓t every race so far. 

The 21-year-old sits third in the drivers’ champions🥀hip, remarkably ahead of Bottas and Sergio Perez. 

After his fifth-place finish in Portimao, Norris admitted he’s never been as conf🐷ident as he is currently - and his performances back it up.

Norris has been consistently fast i⛦n qualifying, decisive when making overtakes and good at managing h🃏is tyres. 

The arrival of Dಌaniel Ricciardo at the team for 2021 appears to have pushed Norris onto anotheℱr level but the question is, can he keep it up?

Norris started 2020 strongly but fell away as the season pไrogressed.

The Circuit de Barcel🎶ona-Catalunya is the perfect litmus test for any driver an🉐d car. Its combination of high-speed and low-speed corners tend to give a clear picture that if your package is good in Barcelona, it can be good everywhere. 

3. Alonso magic on home soil?

Fernando Alonso may have disappointed in qualifying, but the two-time F1 champion made up for it on race day with his spectac𒁏ular overtakes and outstanding race pace to recover to eighth from 13th on the grid.

Alpine appeared to be back on form after a slow start to 2021, but there’s still ♒a question mark over its performance - whether it was track dependent or has Alpine taken a step forward.

The Enstone-based outfit struggled for pace in Barcelona last year so it’ll be interesting to s෴ee how the team fares this year.

The Spanish Grand Prix is of course Alonso’s home event and he🌌 🐷will be keen to deliver a strong race. 

Looking ahead to the race, Alonso knows 𒀰qualifying is the area he needs to work on most.

“It was very difficult last year for the team so we will try to get better, try to learn from whatever problems they faced last year,” Alonso said after Portimao. “As I said the next two tracks the qualifying is quite important as the race is a little bit harder to overtake than here, s🌠o we will focus a lot on this and preparing the weekend, the next 3 days, there is some homework to do for everybody. 

“For me some extra to get better on Saturday. It’sꦜ not extracting the maximum form the one lap tyre as FP2, F3P, you put the soft and do one lap, it’s not you do more than that, the performance was there, more about he changeable conditions if there is more grip, less grip, if it is windier, whatever it changes on track I need to be ready and understand it quickly on the out-lap already. 

“I don’t have more time to do more laps in Q1 or Q2 so there are things I need to speed up, it’s importa🏅nt for Monaco and Barcelona.”

4. Will Barcelona’s track modifications improve the show? 

Turn 10 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has been reprofiled for this y✱ear.

The new Turn 10 corner is a modified versioꩵn of the old track layout used in 1991. 

While it d🔴oesn’t look too impressive on paper, the acute Turn 10 corner has been modified slightly to predominately improve driver (and riders in MotoGP) safety.

The reprofiling of the corner means braking isn’t a💎s heavy, meaning one less corner for potential overtakes.

Barcelona would be beౠtter off ditching the final chicane, but 🧸that doesn't seem likely based on safety grounds. 

5. First wet race since 1996?

Remarkably there hasn’t been a wet race in Barcelona since 1996, where Michael Schumacher famously took his first victory for Ferrari in treacherous c☂onditions. 

There’s ♌currently a chance of rain on race day and given Barcelona doesn’t usually throw up a classic, we’d certainly welcome changeable𒀰 conditions on Sunday.

Verstappen domin✨at꧋ed last time out at Imola as track conditions played havoc, while Hamilton has an impeccable record in the wet in the hybrid era.

Bo༺ttas and Perez will surely be hoping for dry weather...