The Spanish Grand Prix has had a rather nomadic existence during its lifetime, but for the last ten years it has settled at the Circuit de Cataluyna in Barcelona.

The first Spanish race took place at Pedralbes, also near Barcelona, back in 1951. It was won by the great Juan Manuel Fangio who led home a star-studded field comprising Froilan Gonzalez, Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari.

The race then made sporadic appearances on the calendar until 1968 when it became a permanent fixture again after moving to Jarama. It moved again one year later to Montjuich Park but the race was marred by a serious accident involving the Lotus drivers of Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt. The two circuits shared the race until 1975 when another serious accident at Monjuich Park claimed the lives of five spectators after Rolf Stommelen’s Embassy Hill vaulted the barriers.

The race remained at Jarama for the remainder of the Seventies and into the Eighties. Gilles Villeneuve took one of the greatest victories of his short career when he won the 1981 grand prix after holding off the nimble non-turbo cars in the truck-like 126C.

The Spanish Grand Prix was then left off the calendar until it returned in 1986 to be held in the middle of sherry country in Jerez. The first race was an absolute cracker with Ayrton Senna just holding off a charging Nigel Mansell to record the closest finish in F1 history with the pair being separated by just 0.014 at the flag. The race moved to its current home in 1991 when Senna and Mansell again stole the show with their famous 200mph game of chicken down the start-finish straight. Perhaps the most stunning drive at Barcelona came in the 1996 race when Michael Schumacher won by nearly a lap in appalling conditions.