Mark’s 2011 Spanish Grand Prix Preview

Barcelona has always been a good grand prix, but particularly since Fernando [Alonso] has been at the front. This is his crowd; the atmosphere is great and the fireworks are loud. It’s always nice to race in front of people who are passionate about racing.

I have a pretty good record at this track: I won from pole position last year and finished on the podium in ’09. If I can repeat what I achieved last year, I’ll be very happy on Sunday night.

Adrian Newey-designed cars have won nine races at this track and we’re hopeful that the RB7 will be competitive this weekend. But it’s not a given that we’ll have the kind of advantage that we had last year. Our rivals are all pushing hard and we know that they are bringing a lot of updates to this race.

One thing that will be different to last year is the amount of passing in the race. There were only 10 overtaking manoeuvres in 2010 and it’s fair to expect more than that this year thanks to the Pirelli tyres and the DRS.

Tyres are playing a big role in the races this year. If your rubber’s shot, you’ll be overtaken by someone on fresher tyres and it doesn’t matter who you are. The DRS should help as well, so we should be in for more of an exciting race than we’ve come to expect from this race in the past.

I had my first trouble-free weekend of the year in Turkey two weeks ago and I finished second. My intention is to go one better than that here; I’m up for the challenge.

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