Lewis Hamilton arrives at this weekend’s Spanish GP with a 4-point lead at the Top of the Drivers’ Championship just ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, after his victory at Baku, Azerbaijan.

Red Bull Racing is in full racing trim, although they have suffered 2 double retirements.

The Top teams are expected to bring some Key upgrades to their racers.

“The 1st 4 races indicate very strongly that we will see the 3-way battle continue and if anything intensify,” the MercedesAMG’s team principal and CEO Toto Wolf said Wednesday.

“Barcelona holds mixed memories for us – a double DNF in 2016, but also a dramatic win for Lewis last year after passing Sebastian Vettel on track for the lead.

“We’re hoping that this year’s Spanish Grand Prix will be a good race for us, but we know that it will be tough.”

I see Sebastian Vettel as the favorite for the F1 World Championship despite Lewis Hamilton currently leading the drivers standings.

The performance of MercedesAMG this weekend will be particularly in focus given their struggles in the last 3 Grands Prix, as they looked strong at the pre-season testing in Barcelona.

“Barcelona will be interesting because in testing we were the quickest there so we have to see where our pace has gone and whether it is just circuit-specific,” Mr. Wolff said after the Azerbaijan GP.

The 1st race of the Continental European season sees the Spanish race kick into gear with all 10 teams  bringing their racer updates of the season after the 4 opening races.

It will be interesting to see how much performance the teams can find with their upgrades and what impact those upgrades will have on the team ranking, both at the front and in the midfield.

MercedesAMG has just 1 Pole on the season, and it came in the opening Australian GP with Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari having gone on to claim 3 straight Poles.

Overtaking is difficult at the Circuit de Catalunya and Saturday’s qualifying is Key for both Ferrari, and MercedesAMG.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen thinks their upgrade packages could shake up grid place order

Overtaking is difficult in Barcelona and more so in Monte Carlo, making track position Key for a good race result. So every team will work hard to Top performance out of the car in qualifying this Saturday.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel can mark Spain his 50th win Sunday.

Tune in.