Formula 1 ®
Max wins against the faster McLaren of Lando Norris, LCH feeling groovy with third as we continue to watch Aston Martin’s descent, being outqualified by the lost boys at Alpine-Renault. Go Flavio!
Max started from second on the grid behind pole-sitter Lando Norris. But the three-time champion whipped past the McLaren driver by the first turn and then overtook George Russell on lap three of 66 and never looked back.
Norris tried to mount a late challenge but Verstappen upped the pace to cross first. Norris was second, followed by Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes in third.
Verstappen got his seventh win in 10 races this season and claimed his third straight victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalonia.
Norris’s afternoon began to unravel from lights out, when a slow start dropped him behind Verstappen, who went down his inside at the first turn. But both were caught off-guard by George Russell, who had picked up a significant slipstream from the second row of the grid to slingshot his way into the lead around the outside of the first turn.
The Mercedes driver wasn’t long in the lead, however. Needing to push significantly harder than the rest just to stay ahead, he succumbed to Verstappen sweeping around his outside at the first turn with the assistance of DRS beforehand.
Verstappen was rapid in clear air and quickly moved beyond DRS range. Norris, unable to find a way past Russell, was stuck in a difficult position and needed to make a decision.
The Briton goaded his team into making an ambitious strategy choice. Russell stopped on lap 15, Lewis Hamilton behind him pitted on the following lap and Verstappen took new tire on lap 17.
Norris, however, stayed out, gambling on a deep tire offset to regain him the lead rather than playing it safe to secure second.
Max
“We executed everything really well today and I am really pleased to win here in Barcelona. I managed to get ahead in lap two, which ultimately made my race, and the Team did a great job as we were aggressive with the strategy and made all of the right calls. After we overtook and led the race we had to take quite a defensive strategy and really push to the end. We lacked a bit of pace and McLaren were better on the tyres than us today, so that is something that we need to look at and aim to improve on.
needed to try and push a bit more as Lando was pushing full out behind to try to catch me. We need to ultimately maximise our performance and manage the tyres as best we can. That said, it was great to bring it home with a win and as a Team we operated really well today. We were really strong, didn’t make any mistakes and the Team also achieved the fastest pit stop this year too, which was great to see. So a strong weekend overall!”
Lewis
It’s been a really great weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium so I’m very happy! We’re not quite there yet but we’ve taken a huge step in recent races. We didn’t quite have the pace to fight with the two guys ahead of us but, if we can deliver more consistently like this, then we will be in a strong position. We are on our way to catching those guys and that is fantastic.
I had a really bad start, which was unfortunate. The race may have been slightly different if I had got off the line better, but ultimately, I think P3 was the maximum today. I was pleased with my move on Sainz too. I gave him enough room and we both made it through the corner. It was an important move for my race, so I was glad to get it done. It’s now on to Austria and we’re looking forward to it.
Fernando
RACE P12
“It was disappointing not to score any points this weekend in front of the home fans. The whole weekend we have struggled with our pace, and we suffered with high tyre degradation in today’s race. It’s likely to be tough over the next few race weekends, but we will get our heads down, work even harder and look to improve. We have Austria next weekend and then the team’s home race at Silverstone.”