Sergey Sirotkin, Williams, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

Sunday rain should clear before Spanish Grand Prix

2018 Spanish Grand Prix weather

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Rain is expected during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend but current forecasts indicate it won’t fall during Sunday’s race.

There is a strong probability of a sustained period of rainfall from Saturday night lasting into Sunday morning. Although this is likely to stop well before the race begins at 3:10pm local time, it could have a bearing on the morning’s support races.

The weekend’s track action will begin with a warm, sunny Friday in marked contrast to the snow which fell on pre-season testing at the track three months ago.

Air temperatures are forecast to exceed 20C. Track temperatures on the new, darker surface at the Circuit de Catalunya, are likely to be higher than last year when they peaked at 47C during the weekend. This is part of the reason why F1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli has brought new, thinner tyres for this weekend’s race, to help control heat build-up in the rear tyres.

Saturday will be cloudier and slightly cooler on the whole before the rain arrives around midnight. Several hours of consistent rainfall are expected which will ‘reset’ the track surface, removing the rubber from the previous two days of running. The track could still be damp before the race begins, but as the sun is expected to reappear in the afternoon it should dry up quickly.

For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on RaceFans Live and the RaceFans Twitter account.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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9 comments on “Sunday rain should clear before Spanish Grand Prix”

  1. I doubt it’d actually happen due to how rare it is to rain there at this time of year, and has historically been, so, therefore, rather unlikely to happen in the end albeit not impossible, of course, but still. Furthermore, it’s always a bit dangerous to read too much into weather forecast anyway except for the Middle Eastern races. If it happens, then thank god it’s at least forecasted to occur between qualifying and the race, not during qualifying. We shall wait and see.

    1. but even if it not rain the temps in tarmac will be very low so how this will affect the overall grip and endurance of the tyres?

  2. Dammit, I can’t even remember the last wet F1 race. Somewhere in 2016?

    1. Singapore 2017.

    2. joe pineapples
      10th May 2018, 13:30

      Maybe Bernie should have asked them to build the track on the plain.

      1. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the support races.

        1. @juan-fanger That was a draft headline for this article at one point (seriously!)

    3. Agree. Total bummer. Spanish GP would definitely come to life if we had some rain on Sunday.

      Singapore 2017 just had a damp track at the start. The last proper wet race I remember was Brazil 2016.

  3. So glad that it sounds like a dry race. I hope we really start to see what changes teams are bringing and to what effect.

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