F1, Spanish Grand Prix: ‘Aggressive’ tactics pay off for Max Verstappen
Three-time world champion Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix after a decisive early move and an “aggressive strategy” from Red Bull.
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Three-time world champion Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday after a decisive early move and an “aggressive strategy” from Red Bull to deny McLaren’s pole-sitter Lando Norris and extend his lead in the world championship.
Lewis Hamilton completed the podium at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit as the Mercedes seven-time former champion returned to the podium for the first time since Mexico last season.
Aussie drivers Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh and 15 respectively.
The racing may be closer than the past two seasons but Verstappen always seems to pull it out of the bag when it matters most.
This was his 61st career win, seventh of the season, and fourth at the track where he first shot onto the F1 scene as a teenager in 2016.
And it pushed him another step further to a fourth straight title with Austria and Silverstone coming up over the next two weekends.
“I think what made the race was at the beginning I took the lead on lap two and that’s where I had my buffer,” said the 26-year-old.
“I think we did everything well, we drove an aggressive strategy but luckily it paid off until the end. Very happy to win here.”
Fourth-placed George Russell in the other Mercedes enjoyed a stunning start. With Verstappen to the left of Norris, and Russell to the right of him in the charge into the first turn at the end of the long straight, the pole-sitter came out the loser.
As Norris grappled with Verstappen it was Russell, unsighted, who pulled out from fourth on the grid to take command.
“I got a bad start. As simple as that. The car was incredible today, we were for sure the quickest, I just lose it in the beginning,” rued Norris, who climbs into second in the drivers’ standings for the first time in his career.
Ferrari-bound Hamilton, who received a huge cheer from the Catalan crowd on the podium, said: “Unfortunately, like Lando, I got a really bad start.
“It’s been a solid weekend, I have to say a big thank you to the team as they’ve been training so hard on the pit-stops and the strategy, and they were on point.”
Verstappen raced in second from Norris with Hamilton in fourth. Two laps later, at the end of the straight, Verstappen made his race-winning move.
He was told by his race engineer this “might be our best opportunity Max” and the Dutch ace needed no second invitation, producing a beautiful pass to deprive Russell of the lead, surging over one second clear of the Briton, with Norris less than a second back.
In the first flurry of pit stops after around a quarter of the 66-lap race Russell had a slow stop, emerging in eighth as Verstappen led by almost five seconds.
Hamilton had a quicker stop than his teammate as Verstappen headed in for a change of tyres, returning to the circuit in fourth behind yet-to-pit Norris.
A feisty Hamilton zipped past home hero Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and up to sixth at turn one, with contact between the pair.
Norris and his team were trying a different strategy, staying out longer before a new set of rubber.
He eventually ‘boxed’ for fresher tyres, to slot back in behind Sainz in sixth. At halfway it was the familiar presence of Verstappen with a six second gap from Russell, from Norris, back in third after a straightforward overtake past Hamilton.
A few laps later Norris bested Russell after a bit of nip and tuck between the pair to leave only Verstappen ahead of him, albeit around nine seconds up the road.
Russell promptly pitted as the race entered its business stage, Norris chipping away at Verstappen’s lead.
On lap 45 Verstappen came in for a second time, as Norris followed suit, setting up a compelling conclusion in Catalonia.
Norris had over six seconds to make up on his Red Bull rival with 15 laps left as Hamilton moved past his teammate to put himself in the running for his first podium of 2024.
“We need to push to the end now Max,” Verstappen’s engineer urged on the team radio. He took the chequered flag for the third straight year at one of his favourite tracks by a little over two seconds from Norris.
Verstappen heads to Red Bull’s home race in Spielberg in a week’s time with a 69-point lead over Norris, who earned a point for the fastest lap, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, fifth on Sunday, third, two points further back.
Ricciardo ‘surprised’ by dire qualifying after RB upgrades
Lando Norris brushed aside the drama of his McLaren team’s hospitality unit catching fire to produce “the best lap of my life” and deprive Max Verstappen of pole for the Spanish Grand Prix in qualifying on Saturday, as Daniel Ricciardo and RB were left scratching their heads.
Lewis Hamilton will start on the second row alongside his Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Verstappen looked sure to set off for Sunday’s 10th round of the season from the front of the grid.
But in the last throw of the top-10 shoot-out Norris denied the Red Bull ace by a mere two hundredths of a second.
“Today was the perfect lap,” said Norris after only his second career pole. “My best lap by a long way, I knew I had to do something perfect, it was probably my best lap ever.”
On the other side of the ledger Daniel Ricciardo and RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda both failed to make it out of the first stage of qualifying, despite RB rolling out upgrades this weekend.
Ricciardo conceded the upgrades remain a work in progress, after overnight tweaks following practice failed to get it up to speed for qualifying.
“Yesterday, it felt like, yeah, we would still try to fight it a little bit so we did make some bigger changes overnight,” he said.
“We probably haven’t perfected it by now and maybe that’s the encouraging thing, but I feel like we did make a good job overnight to get the car in a better place.
“I felt better today, I had more confidence in it, but unfortunately on the stopwatch we’re still where we were yesterday.
“I felt like we made a good step today but when Pierre [Hamelin, engineer] told me P18, I think it was we ended up, I was… yeah. I didn’t really have anything to say on the radio because I was honestly quite surprised.”
Norris produced his one minute 11.383 seconds of magic after a “stressful” day when the McLaren hospitality unit caught fire before third practice.
McLaren team boss Zak Brown told Sky Sports one staff member had to go to hospital but had been discharged, adding: “Happy to report everyone is fine”.
“I lost my shoes. It’s all been a bit messy,” said Norris.
“I like to listen to my music loud beforehand, but didn’t have that this time. But it’s not the end of the world. I’m not going to complain about it.” Turning back to a vintage qualifying session, Norris, whose only other pole came in Russia in 2021, reflected: “It’s been a while since Sochi!
“Max seemed a bit stronger today, but we made some changes,” added the Briton who won his maiden Grand Prix in May in Miami.
“I’m super happy to be on pole, it’s going to be tough but we’re here to win!”
Verstappen, targeting a fourth straight world title, leads the championship by 56 points from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who starts Sunday’s race in fifth, with Norris seven points back in third.
“I think the whole of qualifying was better than practice for me,” said Verstappen, who won his maiden Grand Prix in Barcelona in 2016 and is on a hat-trick after wins in Catalonia in 2022 and 2023.
“It all clicked much better. The other teams are catching up, we need to bring more performance to the car.”
Ferrari-bound Hamilton was happy to be towards the front of the grid as he out-qualified his teammate Russell for only the second time this year.
“It’s good to be back up here, great to see we are progressing,” he said. “We are slowly climbing closer to the guys in front, it’s really on a knife edge.
“I’m really happy to be in P3 with that long straight to turn one.” Joining Leclerc on the third row will be his Ferrari teammate and home favourite Carlos Sainz.
Next came the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who has a three-place grid penalty from Canada, Esteban Ocon in the other Alpine and Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren.
After only a tenth of a second had covered the top four in final practice earlier the stage was set for an intriguing pole battle.
Complicating matters was a sizeable drop in temperature, with morning sunshine giving way to heavy cloud cover with the wind picking up.
The action on track though was anything but cool, as drivers scrambled to eke out every last ounce of performance for a Grand Prix won from pole in 24 of 33 races run at the circuit.
After clipping the McLaren of Norris at the end of final practice Leclerc tuned up for qualifying with a trip to the FIA’s headmaster’s study as the race stewards investigated the incident.
Leclerc was arguably fortunate to escape with only a reprimand rather than a grid penalty, announced just before qualifying got under way.
Hamilton grabbed the honours in the first qualifying run, jumping from 14th to first, with Verstappen leading the Mercedes duo after the second session.
Verstappen came alive when it counted most - after a quietish time in the three practice sessions he led Q3 after the first flurry of laps.
All the drivers pitted to prepare for one last attempt at depriving the Red Bull ace from Sunday’s pole, with Norris nailing it to end a trying day on a high.
This is the 10th round of the 24-race season and the first of a triple header with Austria and Silverstone coming up over the next two weekends.
Home hope Sainz tops tight and tense final Spanish practice
Home hope Carlos Sainz topped the times for Ferrari in a tight and tense final practice ahead of Spanish Grand Prix qualifying.
Sainz led Lando Norris, who as the one-hour session came to an end, was inexplicably clipped by Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari triggering an investigation by race stewards.
Sainz set a fastest lap of 1min 13.013sec to best Norris by 0.03sec, Leclerc, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and George Russell for Mercedes.
Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton, who had topped Friday’s practice, also had a date with the stewards after an incident involving the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll who appeared to deliberately drive into the seven time champion.
The top four were split by less than a tenth of a second opening up the possibility of a thrilling four-team fight for pole for this 10th round of the season later.
Norris was sitting pretty in second as the session drew to a close when Leclerc surged past him, the man from Monaco then clipping the McLaren despite acres of track room.
“He just drove into me, I think I’ve got damage,” Norris told his team.
Hamilton was first out on the sun-drenched circuit in Catalonia, and the Mercedes driver had the track to himself for the first five minutes, until Verstappen emerged from the garage to keep him company.
After an encouraging Friday when Hamilton topped practice he posted a 1:14.178.
The session was 10 minutes old before the two Ferraris emerged out into the circuit.
As Hamilton pitted and Stroll told his team “Can you get me a knee pad prepared for the next run? I have some knee pain.”
Russell went fastest from Sainz, at his last home race weekend for Ferrari, and Leclerc.
Norris then went second, following a fire at his McLaren team’s hospitality centre as final practice got underway.
“This morning we evacuated our team hub paddock hospitality unit following a fire alert, the team has been safely evacuated while the local fire brigade handle the issue,” McLaren reported.
Leclerc was feeling far happier after a sluggish Friday practice, telling his team: “Good job on the car. It is a good step forward” after both upgraded Ferraris failed to finish last time out in Canada.
“Happy to hear that,” replied his engineer.
Halfway through the hour-long run Russell remained in control but like Stroll had issues with knee pain resulting from the high speed corners.
Norris climbed to the top of the pile inside the closing quarter of an hour before Sainz delighted the partisan crowd with his chart-topping lap and Leclerc tangled with Norris.
Verstappen, who leads Leclerc by 56 points in the drivers’ standings, won his maiden Grand Prix at the circuit in 2016, and is on a three-timer after also winning the race in 2022 and 2023.
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