World champion Max Verstappen dominated Formula 1’s 2023 Spanish Grand Prix to win in front of the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
At the start, polesitter Verstappen moved right after leaving the line to cut off the momentum of fellow front-row starter Carlos Sainz, but the Ferrari – on soft tyres versus the mediums on the Red Bull – got a slipstream and attacked on the outside line at Turn 1.
Verstappen was therefore forced to run very deep as he defended hard from the inside line but kept enough of his car on the track to stay within the rules in what was the only moment he was under serious pressure all day.
Sainz had to check up coming through Turn 2, which slowed Hamilton behind, the Mercedes driver having dived past Lando Norris at Turn 1.
Hamilton slowing appeared to catch Norris off guard and they made contact, which broke the McLaren’s front wing and meant he needed to pit for repairs at the end of lap one, his race ruined and eventually coming home P17 in an event where no cars failed to finish.
Verstappen disappeared up front, escaping Sainz’s DRS threat immediately, while Lance Stroll demoted Hamilton to fourth at Turn 5 on the opening lap.
But it soon became clear that Mercedes had the best non-Red Bull pace and he hunted down and repassed the Aston on lap eight with a move on the outside line into Turn 1.
Hamilton then reached Sainz’s rear by lap 15, by which point Verstappen was seven seconds clear in the lead, and Ferrari stopped at this point to switch softs for mediums.
Mercedes, though, left Hamilton running for nine further laps before he came in to take the mediums too and on lap 28 the seven-time champion used his fresher rubber to claim Sainz’s second place with an easy DRS-assisted move on the run down the main straight.
Perez had briefly run second on his rise from a shock Q2 exit as others pitted ahead, the Red Bull driver putting in a series of passes at Turn 1 after not making any progress at the start.
Like Verstappen, he was started on the mediums and the Red Bull pair were serviced with a lap of each other – on lap 26 and 27 once all their rivals on the soft tyres had already come in.
The middle phase of the race became about Russell catching Sainz has Hamilton shot clear of the Ferrari and Perez’s continuing progress through the field.
Russell had survived an investigation into his driving at the opening corners, as he went through the Turn 2 escape road having been briefly going three-wide in the pack after launching past Perez from his P12 grid spot.
The race stewards looked to see if Russell had gained an advantage by leaving the track but determined he had not and so he was free to charge on his starting softs, the red-walled rubber holding up much better than expected in cooler, overcast conditions.
Russell made a series of further passes after his lap 25 stop, during which he feared rain was falling at Turn 5 but later diagnosed the issue as sweat making its way onto his visor in the humid conditions.
By lap 34 Russell was only 1.1 seconds behind Sainz’s third position and with Perez gunning for both from the pack behind, such was his pace.
The next time by, Russell made a neat late Turn 1 dive on Sainz work and he ran clear as Red Bull then worked out to best get Perez close to the podium.
Ferrari stopped Sainz for hards on lap 41, after which Mercedes opted to bring Russell in too and give him softs for a final stint charge, in the anticipation that Red Bull would leave Perez out on a one-stopper.
Russell was roaring back to Perez when he was instead pitted for a set of softs having taken hards for his second stint, mirroring Verstappen’s strategy up front, the leader’s advantage by the time his team-mate stopped for a second time up to 16.2 seconds.
Verstappen was brought in for a final time on lap 52 and used these to seal the fastest lap bonus point in addition to his final winning margin of 24.0 seconds, with his only issue in the closing laps being repeated warnings for abusing track limits and was eventually given a black-and-white flag final warning.
Perez used his softs to successfully close in a move ahead of Sainz with an easy move into Turn 1’s inside the lap after his Verstappen’s final stop and the suddenly reversed chase of Russell was established.
But this did not come off as Russell lifted his enough so that the 11 seconds lead he had had over Perez when he rejoined from his final stop was only down to 3.4 seconds at the flag, with Hamilton cruising home 8.2 seconds behind Hamilton.
Sainz finished fifth ahead of Stroll and Fernando Alonso in the second Aston Martin, the Spaniard getting close to his team-mate by the flag but assuring Aston he would not pass and he completed the final lap waving to his home crowd.
Esteban Ocon took eighth, with Yuki Tsunoda dropped from finishing ninth on the road to P12 in the final results thanks to a five-second penalty time addition for forcing Zhou Guanyu off at Turn 1 during their late battle.
Zhou, therefore, rose to ninth post-flag, with Pierre Gasly recovering from a slow second stop to take P10 and stave off the attentions of Charles Leclerc, who could not rise from the pitlane to the points despite making a series of passes at the first corner.
So not the most thrilling Spanish Grand Prix despite a change in the final sector in removing the chicane. Max Verstappen was way too fast in the race and won with a commanding lead over his rivals.
Spanish Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:27:57.940
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +24.090s
3 George Russell Mercedes +32.389s
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull +35.812s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +45.698s
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +63.320s
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +64.127s
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +69.242s
9 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +71.878s
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine +73.530s
11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +74.419s
12 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +75.416s
13 Oscar Piastri McLaren +1 lap
14 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +1 lap
15 Nico Hulkenberg Haas V +1 lap
16 Alex Albon Williams +1 lap
17 Lando Norris McLaren +1 lap
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
19 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +1 lap
20 Logan Sargeant Williams +1 lap
Spanish Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen delivered another commanding performance en route to victory in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, leading home the Mercedes machines of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, with team mate Sergio Perez fourth.
Verstappen controlled the race from lights out to the chequered flag to chalk up his fifth win of the 2023 season, and his third triumph at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while further increasing his lead in the championship standings.
Mercedes enjoyed a much-improved display to take a double podium, Hamilton surviving a first-lap clash with McLaren’s Lando Norris and overcoming an early battle with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, and Russell working his way up from 12th on the grid with a series of overtakes.
Perez put in a solid recovery drive – after starting 11th – to take fourth, just missing out on the final podium spot to Russell after a charging final stint, with Sainz completing the top five, having dropped away from the sharp end as the race developed.
Fernando Alonso was unable to add another podium to his, and Aston Martin’s, tally with a quiet run to seventh on home soil, but alongside team mate Lance Stroll’s sixth place, the green machines nonetheless bagged a solid haul of points.
After his podium heroics in Monaco, Esteban Ocon had to settle for eighth position this time out, while a five-second time penalty given to Yuki Tsunoda – for forcing Zhou Guanyu off the track – meant the Alfa Romeo driver and the other Alpine of Pierre Gasly rounded out the points.
Charles Leclerc also gained a spot from Tsunoda’s sanction but was unable to secure a point after wholesale changes to his Ferrari post-qualifying – and his first Q1 exit since the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix – saw him start from the pit lane.
Tsunoda slotted in ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and AlphaTauri team mate Nyck de Vries, who were the first of the drivers a lap down on Verstappen, followed by Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and the lead Williams of Alex Albon.
Norris was forced to pit for a new front wing after his incident with Hamilton at the start and had a lonely race to 17th, with the other Haas, Alfa Romeo and Williams machines of Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant bringing up the rear.
Verstappen’s win means Red Bull continue their unbeaten start to the campaign, with the reigning double world champion – who also earned the fastest lap bonus – moving 53 points clear of nearest rival Perez in the race for the drivers’ title.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-cruises-to-spanish-gp-win-ahead-of-hamilton-and-russell-as-he.QtGzUbHS9BXMYxjMIdwbL.html
George Russell believes Mercedes’ double podium at Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix is “a sign of things to come” for the team.
After qualifying a disappointing 12th, Russell confirmed Mercedes’ improved race pace from Friday practice to move up to third behind winner Max Verstappen and team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Russell and Hamilton used their superior tyre management, which allowed them to avoid the hard tyre on their two-stopper, to defeat Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who dropped from second to fifth.
According to Russell Mercedes’ double podium shows that the Brackley team is finally on the right track after introducing comprehensive upgrades in Monaco, which were further exploited at the more traditional Barcelona layout.
“I’m a little bit surprised, for sure,” said Russell, who finished eight seconds behind Hamilton.
“Kudos to the team for giving me a really great car today. A strong race for us as well from P12 coming all the way to P3.
“A sign of things to come hopefully for us as a team.”
Hamilton, who briefly fell behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll at the start, passed Sainz on track after the first round of pitstops and was never threatened again for second, using his softer mediums to distance the Ferrari.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/russell-double-podium-a-sign-of-things-to-come-for-mercedes-f1/10478604/
Carlos Sainz has called on Ferrari to further address its tyre wear weakness after being exposed by Mercedes in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix on its “weakest track of the season”.
Sainz qualified second for his home race, but as has been the case in previous races, Ferrari’s comparatively poor race pace made him slide backwards, his Ferrari struggling with the bumpy and fast nature of the Barcelona circuit as it was outclassed by Mercedes on tyre management.
After an early first pitstop, Sainz went from the soft onto the hard tyres, which allowed Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to breeze past him on fresher and faster mediums later on.
Team-mate George Russell also followed Hamilton through to claim a double Mercedes podium behind runaway leader Max Verstappen, and Sainz was demoted to fifth in the closing stages by the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who had started as far back as 11th.
While Sainz was slowly losing ground, team-mate Charles Leclerc struggled to make inroads from his pitlane start, finishing just outside the points in 11th.
Sainz said the race exposed Ferrari’s propensity of chewing through its tyres, a recurring issue which was exacerbated by Barcelona’s many high-speed right-handers, which were tough on the left-front corner.
“Honestly, I just spent the whole race managing tyres because we know we are very hard on them and with this high deg circuit, I just couldn’t push,” Sainz said.
“We know it’s a weakness of our car and coming to a high deg circuit and a two-stop race, we were just managing the whole way trying to make it to the target laps of the stints and still falling short in a few of them.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sainz-barcelona-exposed-ferraris-f1-tyre-weakness/10478637/
Lando Norris says he anticipated it would be a struggle to score points in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix even before picking up wing damage in contact with Lewis Hamilton.
McLaren driver Norris qualified a season-best third in Spain, but his hopes of a points finish were curtailed on the first lap when he clashed with Hamilton’s Mercedes at Turn 2 and had to pit at the end of the opening tour.
Hamilton escaped without significant damage and went on to finish second.
Speaking after he was eventually classified 17th, Norris stressed that even before the contact he expected points would be hard to come by due to McLaren’s ongoing struggles for pace and with several drivers starting out of position further down the field.
Mercedes driver George Russell recovered from 12th to finish third, while Sergio Perez’s Red Bull secured fourth from 11th on the grid.
Norris said: “The pace was as expected today, which was bad. I don’t think we expected anything else really.
“Our aim was to maybe finish in the points, but we weren’t expecting anything like yesterday.”
Asked whether points would have been possible without the impact with Hamilton, Norris replied: “Probably not, no.”
He then added: “Because we’re slow, we have been all year. I don’t know, there’s nothing else to say.
“Yesterday was a special day. Some good teams struggled a lot and some of the worse teams did a better job, so it was just an odd day, people making a lot of mistakes and we just capitalised on that.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-expected-struggle-for-f1-points-in-spain-before-hamilton-clash/10478656/