Max Verstappen Survives Late Charge to Claim Victory in the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix

Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates in parc ferme during the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on June 23, 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

BARCELONA, Spain – Following Max Verstappen’s stellar Canadian Grand Prix victory, Formula 1 heads to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix to open up the European triple header that sees F1 go from Spain to Austria to the United Kingdom. Red Bull Racing and Verstappen hope to continue to build their championship lead. However, Mclaren, Mercedes and Ferrari are all closing in on the reigning champs as the season progresses.

Two-hundredths of a second was all the difference between McLaren’s Lando Norris ahead of Verstappen in the previous day’s qualifying that saw the two friends lined up on the front row in Norris’ second career pole. Meanwhile, further back on the grid, the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez carried a three-place grid penalty from the previous race, with the Williams of Logan Sargeant taking a grid penalty for impeding during qualifying and the other Williams of Alex Albon started on pit lane due to making changes of their car after qualifying was done.

In the waning moments before the cars set off for their formation lap, teams removed the tire covers to reveal the starting tire choices for the expected two-stop race. All teams decided to start on the Soft compound tires, though with varying degrees of usage, while Williams elected to start Albon on a set of Medium compound tires.

Norris led the field for the formation lap, and it was time for the race to start. The lights went out with similarly good starts from the front row, where Norris was trying to cover off Verstappen, pushing the World Champion perilously close to the grass. However, the Mercedes of George Russell had an even better start behind them. He could sweep by both of them by the first turn to take the lead, while Norris fell to third.

Verstappen was unhappy with his friend’s move, but Race Control decided it required no action, so the Red Bull driver tried to grab the lead. On Lap 3, with the help of DRS, Verstappen swept around the outside in Turn 1 to take the lead and began working on controlling the race.

Behind them, the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were getting into it with contact involved. Going into Turn 1, they saw the home track favorite, Sainz, take the escape road just in case. Further back, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin was not having a great home race, as he would have to work on making his way up the order.

It was soon announced that Kevin Magnussen’s Haas would be investigated for a possible jump start, resulting in a five-second penalty at his next pit stop.

The first round of pit stops began as Red Bull brought Perez in at Lap 13, along with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, which had a dreadfully slow pit stop. Russell and Sainz followed into the pit lane a couple of laps later, and Verstappen pitted on Lap 17 with a 1.9-second pit stop, giving the lead back to Norris.

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes was looking strong during the race, and he went up against Sainz early on with a close-call pass into Turn 1 that almost looked like the seven-time champion pushed the Ferrari he would be getting into next season. However, Race Control also determined that no further action was taken regarding that incident.

On Lap 24, Norris gave up his lead to switch to Medium compound tires, joining most of the field. As the race neared its halfway point, Verstappen worked on controlling his pace while Norris got to work getting around both Hamilton and soon Russell.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on June 23, 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Norris made his way around Russell after a thrilling battle between Turns 3 through 7 on Lap 35. Mercedes responded by calling Russell into the pits to switch to a set of Hard compound tires. Up front, Norris was starting to nibble away at the race lead, but Red Bull would wait for as long as possible before pitting Verstappen for their set of fresh Soft tires.

That brand new set of Soft tires was bolted onto Verstappen’s Red Bull as Norris attempted to grow out a lead before his final stop. However, a wrench was thrown into their plans as the McLaren pit crew gave Norris a 3.6-second stop, sending him onto the track further behind the Red Bull and alongside Russell.

Further back, Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas and Yuki Tsunoda’s Visa Cash App RB were penalized for speeding on the pit road, devastating both drivers.

In the 15 remaining laps, with the hopes of regaining the lead, Norris put his McLaren through its paces and pushed to reach Verstappen’s rear wing. Subsequently, the Red Bull driver tried to match the McLaren’s times.

Much like the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, Verstappen watched his lead drop from a comfortable five-plus second to a dwindling number as the lead started to drop smaller and smaller. On Lap 51, the margin was 6.6 seconds between first and second. However, by Lap 65, it was a close 2.3 seconds.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on June 23, 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Thankfully for Max Verstappen, Lap 66 passed. He picked up his 61st career Grand Prix victory and his third in a row at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya with a stellar drive from Lando Norris to claim second. Lewis Hamilton came home in third, getting around his teammate Russell for his first podium finish in 2024, marking 18 seasons in a row with podium finishes.

Russell starved off a charge from Leclerc, closing out the Top 5, while Sainz finished ahead of the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri and the other Red Bull of Perez. Alpines of Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished a solid day, closing out the points-paying positions.

Hulkenberg was the remaining driver left on the lead lap in 11th. Finishing a lap down came Alonso, then the Kick Sauber of Zhou Guanyu, the other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, the Visa Cash App RB of Daniel Ricciardo, the other Kick Sauber of Valtteri Bottas, the Haas of Kevin Magnussen ahead of Albon and Tsunoda. Meanwhile, Sargeant finished two laps down by the time the checkered flag flew.

Formula 1 now heads off to Austria and the Red Bull Ring in the second triple-header race, where Red Bull and Verstappen hope to continue to build up their lead. Still, it is becoming increasingly clear that McLaren and Lando Norris are closing in quickly, making it no longer a walk in the park for the reigning champs.