The safety car was deployed several times throughout the race, including for a serious crash involving McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen, though the Finn escaped with only a minor concussion.

Prior to the race weekend, the event was put on probation by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the sport's governing body, for racist taunting during pre-season testing at the circuit.

[5] The teams, also known as "constructors", were Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Renault, Honda, Force India, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Red Bull Racing, Williams, Toro Rosso and Super Aguri.

In the Malaysian Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Felipe Massa had claimed pole position, and while he later spun off and retired, his teammate Räikkönen went on to win the race.

[8] Ferrari's form had continued at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where Massa had led Räikkönen to a one-two finish.

We're approaching the Spanish GP with a maximum effort, keeping our feet on the ground: we were not depressed after the first race and we are not euphoric after Bahrain.

[12] After a poor race in Bahrain, where he narrowly avoided stalling on the grid before colliding with Renault's Fernando Alonso a lap later, Hamilton said he would return stronger in Spain: "I approach it in the same way and obviously I won't be making the same mistake again.

Hamilton was particularly unpopular with the country's Formula One fans due to his acrimonious inter-team rivalry with Spaniard Alonso during the previous year's championship, which had resulted in the latter leaving the McLaren team and returning to Renault for 2008.

[15] The Super Aguri team had been in financial trouble since a proposed takeover deal backed by equity firm Dubai International Capital, under the "Magma Group" banner, failed to take effect.

[18] The Ferraris were fastest in the first session; Räikkönen was quickest with a time of 1:20.649, ahead of Massa, who recovered from a spin and an off-track excursion on his first two laps to take second.

[19] Räikkönen repeated his morning effort in the second session, with a time of 1:21.935, as the frontrunners experimented with higher fuel loads.

[20] The McLarens had a less successful session; Kovalainen struggled with gearbox problems, and difficulty with Hamilton's set-up meant he managed 11th after suffering from excessive oversteer.

[22] Webber's teammate David Coulthard was next quickest, ahead of Alonso, Kubica, Toyota driver Jarno Trulli and Sébastien Bourdais of Toro Rosso.

[22] Mechanical problems meant Webber failed to set a time, his car coming to a halt in the pit-lane exit after two installation laps.

[24] The Super Aguris of Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato would line up on the back row of the grid in their final race.

[27][30] The race restarted on lap four when the safety car peeled off, Räikkönen quickly increased his lead over Massa to more than a second.

[30] Heidfeld was forced to pit immediately as he was low on fuel, incurring a ten-second stop-go penalty for coming in before the pit-lane was officially re-opened.

[30][31] Räikkönen, Massa, Hamilton, Kubica and Alonso, having already made their pit stops, trailed the safety car until it peeled off on lap 29.

[31] As Räikkönen again increased his lead over Massa to more than two seconds, Alonso pulled over to the side of the track, smoke billowing from his engine, and retired.

[27] Glock sustained front wing damage, and Coulthard suffered a puncture to his left rear tyre; both pitted soon after for repairs.

[5] Rosberg, Alonso, Barrichello, Kovalainen, Davidson, Bourdais, Piquet, Vettel and Sutil were the retirements from a punishing Spanish Grand Prix.

The top three finishers appeared on the podium and in the subsequent press conference, where Räikkönen said his pole position start was an important factor in his victory: "This circuit is very difficult to overtake.

"[37] Although Ferrari had performed well, Massa said their speed was not significantly better than their opponents, so "we need to keep working like crazy in the factory to improve the car in every area.

"[37] Hamilton agreed that the start was the most important part of the race: "Obviously when we qualified fifth we knew that it would be very difficult to beat the Ferraris.

[33] After spending the night under observation in a nearby hospital, the McLaren driver was cleared to race in the next Grand Prix, two weeks later.

Speaking in his regular BBC Online column, Webber said the "run-off on that corner is too tight and we need to have a look at it because any driver that has an error there is going to have a big crash.