Introduction
Max Verstappen sealed an assured victory in the 2024 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix as he held off the challenge of pole-sitter Lando Norris to take his seventh win of the season.
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The Red Bull man took the lead of the race on Lap 3 after George Russell’s Mercedes, starting fourth, made the most of its electric start as the lights went out to lead early on.
With Verstappen less than happy after appearing to be squeezed by Norris at the start, the three-time world champion settled down after getting past the McLaren man before pipping Russell for the lead with a move down the outside of Turn 1.
Pole-sitter Norris, who had been lauding his “perfect lap” in qualifying yesterday, would spend the crucial early stages of the race stuck behind Russell, costing him time in the eventual fight for the lead.
With the lead changing hands several times as drivers dipped in for their pit stops, Verstappen would continue to control the race and maintain his lead as the chequered flag closed in. The Red Bull man had kept a set of new softs aside for his final stint of the Grand Prix.
With Norris running second, his efforts to close in on the Dutchman to challenge for the victory were in vain despite Verstappen’s struggles towards the end, hindered by his second pit stop being a slow 3.6-second effort.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton managed to secure his first Grand Prix podium of the season, having enjoyed a couple of dramatic on-track battles with the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, while Russell would come home in P4 – complaining that his hard tyre “did not feel good” on his final stint.
Charles Leclerc and Sainz’s Ferraris would come home in P5 and P6, respectively, with any hope of a Scuderia challenge failing to materialise around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Pierre Gasly took a well-deserved ninth for Alpine, and his teammate Esteban Ocon made it a double-point affair for the team, thanks to his P10 result.
Sergio Perez managed to undo some of the damage caused by his three-place grid penalty picked up last time in Canada, with the Red Bull man initially starting from 11th, by making a late overtake on Gasly for eighth.
Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas would take 11th, hindered by a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Fernando Alonso’s performance was only good enough for 12th in what has been a difficult weekend for Aston Martin.
Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu would come home in 13th ahead of Alonso’s teammate Stroll, while Daniel Ricciardo took P15. RB was scratching after a difficult weekend when they introduced a significant new update.
That difficulty was compounded with Yuki Tsunoda in the 19th – on a day without yellow flags or retirements – while Bottas, Magnussen and Albon would finish 16th, 17th and 18th, respectively. The Williams of Logan Sargeant was the final car to finish in 20th place.
With Verstappen overjoyed by his latest triumph in Spain, his third in a row at this event, Norris was left to lament a missed opportunity, admitting over the radio at the end that he had messed up his start.
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director, Pirelli:
It was a very intense and, at times, spectacular race, and here I’m thinking of Russell’s incredible start, similar to Alonso’s from 2011, and the duels between George above, first with Max and then with Lando. The race among the leaders was like a game of chess between the four teams who filled the top eight places, with the moves made up of strategy choices and tyre management.
However, from our side, it was actually a very linear race. All three compounds performed as expected, both in terms of wear and degradation, despite the temperatures being significantly higher than predicted yesterday. The same can be said for the strategies regarding tyre usage and the pit stop windows. Soft and Medium delivered the best performance, while despite the higher temperatures, the Hard struggled a bit in terms of overall performance, while not offering a decisive advantage when it came to degradation.
The day on the track:
There were no retirements this afternoon, with 11 20 drivers going the full distance, while nine were lapped. All 19 drivers on the grid started on the Soft C3, while Albon, who had to start from the pit lane in his Williams, went for the C2. The pit stops began as early as lap 9 with Tsunoda, but the leaders waited until lap 15 (Sainz and Russell) to switch to Mediums, with Norris and Leclerc lengthening their stints as much as possible to lap 23 for the former and 24 for the latter.
The Hard also came into play for the third stint, used by most drivers. However, among the leaders, the Soft held sway for the final part of the race, chosen by Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc and the McLaren pair. Only Sainz and Russell opted for the Hard.
Just two drivers, Perez and Tsunoda, made three stops, while 12 used all three available compounds. Apart from the two already mentioned, the only drivers who did not were Perez, Albon, and Bottas. The Finn actually ran the longest stint, doing 37 laps on the Hard, while Zhou topped the list for Medium stints, doing 32 laps, and Leclerc managed 24 on the Soft.
What’s next?
The Formula 1 World Championship calendar is at its busiest right now, with five Grands Prix in the space of six weeks: after Barcelona, it’s the Austrian Grand Prix next weekend, the third round this year to feature the Sprint format. Also, this coming weekend, Spa-Francorchamps hosts the Crowdstrike 24 Hours, the most important Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe round. No fewer than 67 cars will be on the track, all running Pirelli tyres.
2024 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix Race Results
Pos | No | Driver | Country | Team | Time | Points | Overall |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Netherlands | Red Bull Racing | 1:28:20.227 | 25 | 219 |
2. | 4 | Lando Norris | Great Britain | Mclaren Racing | +2.219s | 19 | 150 |
3. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +17.790s | 15 | 70 |
4. | 63 | George Russell | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +22.320s | 12 | 81 |
5. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Monaco | Scuderia Ferrari | +22.709s | 10 | 148 |
6. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Spain | Scuderia Ferrari | +31.028s | 8 | 116 |
7. | 81 | Oscar Piastri | Australia | McLaren Racing | +33.760s | 6 | 87 |
8. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Red Bull Racing | +59.524s | 4 | 111 |
9. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | France | Alpine F1 Team | +62.025s | 2 | 5 |
10. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | France | Alpine F1 Team | +71.889s | 1 | 3 |
11. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Germany | Haas F1 Team | +79.215s | 0 | 6 |
12. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Aston Martin F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 41 |
13. | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | China | Kick Sauber F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
14. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Canada | Aston Martin F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 17 |
15. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Australia | Visa Cash App F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 9 |
16. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Finland | Kick Sauber F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
17. | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Denmark | Haas F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 1 |
18. | 45 | Alexander Albon | Thailand | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 0 | 2 |
14. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Japan | Visa Cash App F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 19 |
15. | 2 | Logan Sargeant | USA | Williams Racing | +2 laps | 0 | 0 |
2024 Constructor Standings
Pos | Team | Points |
---|---|---|
1. | McLaren Racing | 593 |
2. | Scuderia Ferrari | 557 |
3. | Red Bull Racing | 544 |
4. | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | 382 |
5. | Aston Martin F1 Team | 86 |
6. | Alpine F1 Team | 49 |
6. | Haas F1 Team | 46 |
7. | Visa Cash App F1 Team | 44 |
8. | Williams Racing | 17 |
10. | Kick Sauber F1 Team | 0 |
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