Designed by John Hugenholtz (who also created Suzuka), the 3.850 km (2.392 mi) circuit was built by Alessandro Rocci in 1967 on arid scrub land.

[citation needed] It has a short main straight and most of the course consisted of tight, twisty corners so overtaking was extremely difficult.

An example of this came when Gilles Villeneuve successfully defended his lead throughout the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix, despite a tail of four potentially faster cars.

Villeneuve's turbocharged Ferrari 126CK, while powerful and fast on the straight, did not have as efficient ground effect aerodynamics as his pursuers - Jacques Laffite (V12 Ligier-Matra), John Watson (McLaren-Ford), Carlos Reutemann (Williams-Ford), and Elio de Angelis (Lotus-Ford) and was slower through the turns.

Pole position for the race had been taken by triple Le Mans 24 Hour winner Klaus Ludwig in a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth turbo with a time of 1:31.434, while the fastest lap was by England's Andy Rouse (also in a Sierra Cosworth) with a time of 1:33.710.