Mercedes abandoned the use of an airbox mounted atop the engine cowling, in favour of a rigid vertical rollbar and two pronounced air intakes directly behind the driver's cockpit.

However, owing to the volcanic eruptions in Iceland that had disrupted air travel across Europe at the time of the previous race, only one chassis was able to make it to Barcelona, to be used by Timo Glock.

In the wake of controversy that arose from accusations that their generic Marlboro "barcode" decal contained subliminal advertising, Ferrari removed all traces of it from their car for the weekend.

The first practice session was incident-free, save for Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa falling victim to a gearbox failure.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button topped the timing sheets for McLaren, with Michael Schumacher experiencing a resurgence to finish third after a poor opening to his 2010 campaign.

Hülkenberg would later provide drama in the second session, when an off-track excursion at the exit of Campsa resulted in an impact with the wall that tore the front wing off.

Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari stopped on the circuit with just a few minutes remaining in the session, with the recovery truck hitting a bridge as it returned the stricken car to the pits.

The third session was marked by separate incidents by Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi, both of whom found a puddle of standing water in the middle of the Repsol corner just minutes apart.

Similar penalties were applied to both Virgin Racing cars after the team failed to notify the FIA of changes to their gear ratios before the deadline, and to Hispania's Karun Chandhok, who replaced his gearbox.

The Circuit de Catalunya has a history of radio-related problems; during practice sessions for the 2009 race, Mark Webber reported being able to hear Spanish truck drivers talking to one another over CB radios.

The second session was similarly themed, as Sutil, de la Rosa, Hülkenberg, Petrov, Buemi, Alguersuari and Liuzzi all fell away.

The first and only round of pit stops came shortly after lap fifteen, and a mistake by Red Bull cost Vettel four seconds, and a place to Hamilton.

Williams gambled on a two-stop strategy for Nico Hülkenberg, a mistake that shunted the German driver down the order where he was caught up in a duel with a struggling Rosberg.

Alonso was fourth, ahead of the Schumacher-Button scrap which Massa also joined, with Sutil, Kubica and the recovering Rubens Barrichello in the Williams completing the top ten.

He was classified as finishing fourteenth as he had completed 90% of the winner's race distance, his accident gifting second place to Alonso and allowing the fading Vettel back onto the podium for third.