The Spanish Grand Prix peaked at 5.6 million viewers on BBC One and Sky Sports F1, overnight figures have shown. BBC One had 4.6 million of these viewers, with Sky Sports recording a peak of 1.05 million – a split of 82% to 18% in BBC’s favour.

In terms of programme averages (which is what I tend to use for comparison purposes), BBC One had an average of 3.49 million viewers from 12:10 to 15:15, while Sky Sports F1 had an average of 512,000 (3.6%) from 11:30 to 16:45, their programme extended by 15 minutes due to the events in Barcelona. This totals up at exactly 4 million viewers, with a split of 87% to 13% in BBC’s favour. The split is larger for the averages due to Sky’s longer pre and post race show. Doing some calculations shows that Sky had in the region of 770,000 viewers between 12:10 and 15:15.

But how does the split compare with China (the last race where both BBC and Sky were live), and how do the averages compare with previous years? For the Chinese Grand Prix, BBC recorded a 5-minute peak of 4.21 million, whereas Sky Sports F1 had a peak of 887,000 viewers. This was a split of 82.6% vs 17.4% in BBC’s favour. You could argue the split was 0.6 percent higher in Sky’s favour for Spain, but in reality the numbers are in the usual margin of error that you would expect. Overall, since China it seems Sky has not clawed anything from BBC, and vice versa.

The comparisons to previous year’s make for interesting reading, though. Last year’s race – which had the highest rating since 1996 – peaked with 6.2 million viewers and had an average of 4.68 million viewers. So this year marks a 600 thousand viewer drop on that figure. For the Spanish Grand Prix, that figure was abnormally high, the remainder of the Spanish Grand Prix races in the 21st century have either had bang on 4 million viewers, or below 4 million viewers. The 2012 figure of 4 million is in-line with the 2010 race day average which had 3.99 million, and above the preceding years. I guess, from a viewers’ perspective, a battle between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton is more intriguing than that of a relative unknown to viewers (Pastor Maldonaldo) and Fernando Alonso. It’s worth considering outside factors as well, it was the last day of the Premier League season yesterday which, although it did not clash with the F1, would have probably depleted the Formula 1 figures slightly.

Either way, although it’s down year-on-year, I think it was to be expected given last year’s surprisingly high figure. Moving onto Qualifying, Saturday on BBC One only had 2.10 million. I don’t yet know Sky Sports F1’s Qualifying figure, we probably won’t know until next Monday, but assuming it is above 200 thousand viewers, it will be higher than last year’s Qualifying figure of 2.30 million, albeit lower than 2009 and 2010.

In conclusion, I think the figures are solid, and as expected. Nothing too high, but nothing of much concern. Next, we move onto Monaco, which due to the glitz and glamour of the place and it being one of the main races of the year tends to bring higher viewing figures.

Note: The ratings information comes from Digital Spy, Media Guardian, the Controller of BBC News Kevin Bakhurst and BARB.

UPDATE: Seconds after posting this, James Allen claims that BBC’s show peaked with 6.2 million. I’m not sure how true this is, none of the averages or peaks that I have seen support his assertion.