Pole, Fastest Lap and The Win as Verstappen Dominates The Weekend.
Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen drove to a dominant grid-to-flag victory in the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya by 24.090s over Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, as team-mate Sergio Pérez just missed the podium after driving through the field.
After emerging victorious in Monaco last weekend at a track where Red Bull were expected to face their stiffest challenge of 2023 to date, Verstappen was always expected to be particularly difficult to beat at the more traditional Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The world championship leader led from start to finish, after topping all three practice sessions and qualifying on pole for the first time in Spain at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Verstappen led wire to wire eventually finishing 25 seconds clear of Hamilton.
The most pressure he faced was from Ferrari’s Sainz at the first corner, but he overcame what appeared to be a slightly inferior start to hold the lead, and from there cruised into the distance.
The victory, which came with an additional point as Verstappen set the fastest lap in the final stages, extended his world championship lead to 53 points over team-mate Sergio Perez, who recovered from starting 11th to finish fourth.
The win is Verstappen’s fifth win in the seven races so far this season and maintained the team’s unbeaten season to date.
“To win here again feels incredible," said Verstappen post race. “It’s a massive pleasure to drive a car like this. It was important to try and keep the lead into turn one, it was quite tight. From there onwards it was about managing the tires, I was able to create a big gap. We went on to the hards but I didn’t seem to have much grip, I was sliding around quite a lot, the pace was okay but I couldn’t create more of a gap, so we switched to softs and then I just needed to bring it home. We’ve had another strong weekend and that’s of course what I like to see for the Team, hopefully we can keep this up throughout the year."
BARCELONA, SPAIN - JUNE 04: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 leads Carlos Sainz of Spain driving (55) the Ferrari SF-23 and the rest of the field at the start during the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on June 04, 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202306040579 // Usage for editorial use only //
Also unable to match Mercedes were Aston Martin, with Lance Stroll finishing sixth, and in front of team-mate Fernando Alonso for the first time this season, with the Spaniard seventh after a challenging weekend at his home race.
A delighted Hamilton said: “We definitely didn’t expect to have the result we had today, so I just really want to take my hat off to my team and say a big, big thank you to everyone back at the factory for continuing to push and bring us a little bit closer to the Bulls. They are still a bit ahead, but we’ll keep chasing them down. This is an amazing result."
For other drivers on the track, Ferrari’s Charles LeClerc who challenged Verstappen last season and was seen as a top threat to Verstappen’s chase for three championships in a row, continues his up and down season. While having moments to of highs, Ferrari and LeClerc continue to just fall away on race day. Leclerc started from the pits after an abysmal Saturday saw him qualify 19th, before accepting a pit lane start having made changes to a Ferrari that he said there was “something off" with.
Inspections from the team found nothing wrong with the SF-23, which was also debuting significant upgrades, and changes to his setup – along with a new gearbox – appeared to make little difference on Sunday while his teammate started second and finished fifth.
It may be time for LeClerc to stop blaming the car each time and look inward as he is seventh in the drivers’ standings after seven races, with this a third scoreless weekend of the season.
