The Spanish GP is one of the oldest in the world still contested, celebrating its centenary in 2013. During the years, Scuderia Ferrari has had many successful moments in Spain, as the Maranello side is the Formula 1 team with most wins (12), followed by McLaren (8) and Williams (7). Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver in the history of the Spanish Grand Prix, with six wins, while Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Mika Hakkinen each managed to score three victories.
Mike Hawthorn won for Scuderia Ferrari the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix, after he started from third position, thus scoring the first victory in Spain for the Italiam team, who after that had to wait two decades for another win: Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni managed a fantastic 1-2 finish at the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari, a race in which Niki Lauda lapped every car except his team-mate.
Gilles Villeneuve (1981) and Alain Prost (1990) brought the next two wins for the Maranello team, before Michael Schumacher made the Spanish Grand Prix one of his favourite races. In 1996 the German driver took his first Ferrari victory, which is generally considered to be one of his finest. In the torrential rain, Michael produced a stunning drive, and is a very good example of why he earned the nickname “Regenmeister” (“Rainmaster”). It was only the first of the five victories which the German world champion scored for Scuderia Ferrari in Spain: Michael Schumacher also won in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 (when Rubens Barrichello completed another double for Ferrari).
Felipe Massa took pole position in 2007 and won the race ahead of his team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, as the Finnish driver scored his only victory at the Spanish GP for Ferrari the very next season, in 2008, three seconds ahead of Felipe Massa, making it a perfect weekend for the Italian team in Barcelona. The 2013 Spanish GP has marked Ferrari’s most recent win at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, when local hero Fernando Alonso started fifth, but had an impressive start and made the most notable overtaking move on the first lap as Fernando went round the outside of both Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton going into turn 3. The Spanish driver had an outstanding performance in front of his home crowd and won ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault) and his Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa.
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