Another race, another Max Verstappen victory. (Photo: Adam Pretty | Getty Images)
MONTMELO, Spain – The Formula 1 paddock made its way to a redesigned Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix with a number of teams hoping to show off upgrades and new designs.
From the likes of Ferrari with a new sidepod look to Mercedes showing off the true pace of the re-engineered look of the W14, teams hoped for immediate results against the Red Bull Racing juggernauts in Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Additionally, the track went through some upgrades, in a way, with the race dropping its final chicane that has met the ire of fans and drivers alike since its introduction.
Friday’s two Free Practice sessions did not have much of a note under the sweltering Spanish sun. A very blue top five in Free Practice (FP) 1 saw the Red Bull Racing pair of Verstappen and Perez leading the way, with Verstappen up 0.768s on his teammate, with the Alpine drivers of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly followed by Alpha Tauri driver Nyck De Vries splitting the pair.
FP2 had much of the same story, but Perez put in times closer to his two-time and reigning World Championship-leading teammate.
However, Verstappen, once again, placed the fastest lap. Aston Martin driver, and one of the two home country heroes, Fernando Alonso found himself second on the timing sheets while, in a surprise, Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg found himself in third. Perez followed with Ocon rounding out the top five.
Saturday offered a bit of excitement in FP3 and qualifying. While the end of the Monaco Grand Prix had a bit of help from Mother Nature, she returned a bit in Spain with some rain that fell during FP3.
Thankfully to the teams, they were able to get some track time in dry conditions that saw Verstappen put in the fastest lap, securing a clean sweep of all three practice sessions. Perez ranked second followed by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari driver, and the other home track hero, Carlos Sainz, and Alonso, who finished out the top five.
The practice session was briefly interrupted when Williams driver Logan Sargeant found himself in the gravel and then the barriers in the last corner. Once that was cleaned up, the rain began to fall and improvements in the timings were no longer a factor.
Qualifying was up next and the most exciting session of the weekend occurred in Round 1.
After the rain at the end of FP3 and during the support race, there was a thought that at least some of the first round might be under wet track conditions. However, that was not the case outside of a few spots in which the track was damp.
The excitement ramped up almost immediately as Alpha Tauri driver Yuki Tsunoda spun on a damp patch in Turn 11, followed by his teammate De Vries and Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas following along in the same spot.
A red flag was called to clean up the gravel that had been pushed up on the track, but the drama was not done yet. In probably the biggest shock, last year’s polesitter, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, had issues on his qualifying run that meant he was unable to set a fast time as he could not get the car to do what he wanted it to, qualifying 19th in a major disappointment.
Leclerc was joined Bottas, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, and both Williams’ drivers of Alex Albon and Sargeant in not advancing into the next round.
The first round was also the only session of the entire weekend that Verstappen did not lead. While he set a quick enough time to easily make it into the next round, on his final run, he and Sainz were held back by Gasly, which meant they unable to put in a faster time. Subsequently, Gasly received a six place grid penalty for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
During the second round, more drama was in the cards with an even more mixed top 10. While Verstappen stat atop of the timing charts, Perez found himself in the gravel trap during his fast lap. As a result, Perez had to make his second run on dirty tires that he could not improve his time, scuffling him out of a chance to participate in the third round.
Furthermore, in shades of 2016 at the same track, the Mercedes teammates of Hamilton and George Russell were wheel-to-wheel, scraping off parts of their vehicles on the front stretch. Thankfully, they did not wreck this time around. However, Russell was not able to put in a faster time and he joined Perez in not making the third round with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, De Vries and Tsunoda.
Verstappen wasted little time dominating yet another F1 grand prix. (Photo: Mark Thompson | Getty Images)
In a bit of strategy, Red Bull gave Verstappen two sets of brand new soft compound tires for both of his attempts at the fastest lap in Q3. While every other team had given their drivers a scuff of soft tires and a set of new ones, Verstappen was able to put down a 1:12.272 on his first of two new sets on his first run, setting a hefty benchmark.
Meanwhile, Sainz set the second fastest lap while McLaren’s Landon Norris made a surprise appearance in setting the third fastest lap. Verstappen went out on his second set of new softs and was looking to set a faster lap, but when it became clear his first attempt was fast enough, the Red Bull garage called him back in. Gasly and Hamilton would round out the top five for the Grand Prix.
As the ramp-up to the Grand Prix grew, the expected strategy became clear, as a two-stop strategy was expected to happen. A majority of the starting top 10 started on soft tires while pole sitter Verstappen started on a set of medium tires.
Once the lights went out, the field set off in a somewhat clean start as Verstappen got away cleanly from Sainz after going wheel-to-wheel in the first two corners. In the meantime, surprise third-place starter Norris incurred some damage in the first corner after contact with Hamilton that caused him to fall through the pack, losing a chance at a good points finish.
Matching the overarching story of the weekend and the season up to that point, Verstappen cleared away from the field and grew his gap. Perez and Russell made their way through the field along with 19th-place starter Leclerc, who made his way up to 11th.
The first round of pit stops was led by Sainz while the two Mercedes and Red Bull drivers stayed out to build a gap. Verstappen had built up enough of a lead when the Mercedes drivers pitted that he was able to make the switch from mediums to hard tires without losing the lead.
The first bit of brevity of the day came due to the surrounding clouds and the small threat of weather during the race.
Russell radioed to the pit wall that he thought it was starting to rain on parts of the track, but the radio call from the pit wall brought up that it might be sweat from George himself.
As expected, a second round of pit stops did show up. The Mercedes and Red Bull duos went with soft tires while the Ferrari duo went with hard tires for the rest of the race while the rest of the field was split up to the end.
The lone “incident” that caused a moment of concern for the stewards was in the closing stages of the race battling for the last couple of spots for points-paying positions.
Tsunoda and Zhou Guanyu got close to each other without contact. However, the race stewards took grievance for that and handed the AlphaTauri driver with a five second penalty.
The Aston Martin duo of Stroll and Alonso did not make as much noise this weekend as they had during the previous races of the season. Stroll led his teammate in the final stages of the race, in which Alonso told his pit wall that he would not be passing for the position, seeming almost out of character for the veteran driver.
In perhaps the only other blemish on the almost perfect weekend for Verstappen, he was given the black and white flag for exceeding track limits. However, within a couple of laps of that, Verstappen asked his pit wall for the fastest time. He was told he should not worry about it.
Then he came around and smashed the fastest lap to set up for a Grand Slam victory.
Arms raised in victory. (Photo: Mark Thompson | Getty Images)
Verstappen came to the checkered flag after leading all of the laps and getting the fastest lap to get his third career Grand Slam. The Mercedes duo with their new car upgrades closed out the podium with Perez salvaging his day with a fourth place finish.
Sainz rounded out the top five while the Aston Martin duo followed. To close out the points-paying positions, Ocon, Zhou and Gasly closed out the top 10.
There is now a week’s break before the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. Questions remain, including the prospects of Red Bull continuing their impressive pace or if the upgrades brought by Mercedes are the real deal amongst many more that will be asked and hopefully answered when the F1 schedule heads to the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
