1994 Spanish Grand Prix

Championship standings

Schumacher has won all four opening races and leads the Drivers’ Championship by a wide margin.

Previous race

At Monaco, Schumacher won his fourth consecutive race. Wendlinger’s practice crash (he remains in a coma) meant Sauber ran no car. Hill and Häkkinen both spun out on the opening lap. Martin Brundle finished second for McLaren, Gerhard Berger third.

Between-race developments

Williams has signed test driver David Coulthard as Senna’s replacement for the remainder of the season, with 1992 champion Nigel Mansell available for races that do not conflict with his IndyCar commitments. Coulthard makes his Formula One debut here. Sauber enters only one car this weekend as Wendlinger remains absent.

Pedro Lamy suffered a severe testing accident at Silverstone, breaking both legs and both wrists. He is out for the majority of the season; test driver Alessandro Zanardi replaces him at Lotus. The new Lotus 109 makes its race debut this weekend.

The new Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, re-formed at Monaco last weekend, has agreed with circuit officials to install a temporary tyre chicane at the Nissan corner to slow cars ahead of the La Caixa hairpin.

Entrants

Andrea Montermini makes his Formula One debut at Simtek, replacing the late Roland Ratzenberger.

Practice

In Saturday morning’s free practice, Montermini suffered a heavy crash exiting the high-speed final corner and was taken to hospital with a broken ankle and chipped heel. Simtek entered only one car for the rest of the weekend.