Max Verstappen rules Formula 1 at will, behind only Mercedes draws some hope: while the world champion in the Red Bull made the next demonstration of power at the Spanish Grand Prix with a start-finish victory, the Silver Arrows seem to have made a leap forward thanks to new parts to have. Record champion Lewis Hamilton was second in Barcelona, his teammate George Russell third in the first Mercedes double podium of the season.
For the revived former world champion Fernando Alonso, on the other hand, the long-awaited fiesta didn’t materialize. The Aston Martin driver had to settle for seventh place, it is by far his worst result of the season. The ranks were full, and a remarkable number of fans wore the British Racing Green from Alonso’s new racing team. His compatriot Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari also missed the podium in fifth place, teammate Charles Leclerc didn’t get any points at all – as did Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg, who finished 15th.
Dark clouds before take off
Things are going smoothly this year only for Verstappen, who easily clinched his 40th victory and his fifth in the seventh race of the season – while his teammate Sergio Perez, winner of the other two races, only finished fourth after a mixed qualifying and continued to start dramatically Lost ground on Verstappen. The Dutchman and his self-proclaimed challenger are already separated by 53 points, and the world title seems to have been won after a third of the season.
Best in every training session, by far the fastest in qualifying – and the suspicion was obvious that Verstappen didn’t have to tease everything out of his Red Bull for a long time. So who or what should prevent the world champion from another sovereign victory?
The dark clouds that gathered just before take-off caused at least a little crackling. However, Verstappen, who is known to be an excellent rain driver, acted cool. “Even when it rains, we have to have everything under control when it comes to strategy. But so far the weekend has been really good. It’s a pleasure to drive this car here,” said the world champion. “If things go normally, Max will win here confidently,” predicted Red Bull Motorsport Advisor Helmut Marko.
And it went normally: Verstappen didn’t start perfectly, but stayed in front of Sainz and, as expected, quickly pulled away at the top. Behind them, Mercedes showed a strong race, while Hülkenberg, who had started from seventh place, complained about massive tire degradation after just a few laps and lost his front place early on. To make matters worse, his Haas team made two mistakes when changing tires.
The majority of the drivers opted for a two-stop strategy early on, while the predicted rain failed to materialize. Only the Red Bull and Mercedes stayed significantly longer on the first set. After 27 of 66 laps, Verstappen finally swapped tires without losing his lead. Even with his second change, the lead was comfortable.
However, Verstappen was warned towards the end of the race for leaving the track limits too often. He was instructed by the team not to take any more risks given his large lead – and hit the gas again to secure the bonus point for the fastest lap of the race.
