Back to Business and a Return to the Podium

The Spanish Grand Prix has always produced entertaining racing moments - think the now infamous 2016 crash between Hamilton and Rosberg, which gave way for Max Verstappen to win his first GP, Pastor Maldonado claiming his only victory in a huge twist of fate and Fernando Alonso’s last win to date in front of adoring home fans in 2013. Last weekend can’t be said to have reached that level, however it did demonstrate that the 2024 season isn’t as clear-cut in terms of pace as some think upon first inspection.

Qualifying

McLaren’s Lando Norris found himself on pole position for the second time in his career, only just beating out Verstappen by two hundredths of a second.

Ferrari man Leclerc set the pace initially, leading Verstappen by just 0.049s and the top five all being within a few tenths of each other. As the second round of laps began, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time, with the usual top 10 suspects making it through, Perez and Piastri just about hanging on. Fernando Alonso completed the fastest drivers of Q1.

Knocked out of first qualifying were:

16 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN

17 - Yuki TSUNODA

18 - Daniel RICCIARDO

19 - Alexander ALBON

20 - Logan SARGEANT

Q2 saw Max Verstappen lead the way with a blistering lap time of 1:11.653, followed closely by former teammates Norris and Sainz. Hamilton secured second place while Russell placed third and made it two silver arrows in the top three. Meanwhile, Alonso faced disappointment in front of his home fans, missing out on Q3 by a mere 0.019 seconds.

Out of Q2 were:

11 - Fernando ALONSO

12 - Valtteri BOTTAS

13 - Nico HULKENBERG

14 - Lance STROLL

15 - ZHOU Guanyu

Verstappen once again topped the opening times, closely followed by Norris; Hamilton secured third place, while Russell, Sainz, and Leclerc followed. Pierre Gasly impressed in seventh as compatriot Esteban Ocon and Piastri completed the top ten. Verstappen improved to a 1:11.403, but Norris responded brilliantly with a lap time 20ms faster to claim pole number two of his career. Seven-time world champion Hamilton achieved his best qualifying result of the season in third while Piastri missed out due to an off-track excursion and thus a deleted lap. The Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz settled for fifth and sixth positions.

Italian Stallion Standoff

A contentious incident unfolded between Ferrari teammates Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc during last week’s Grand Prix - Sainz overtook Leclerc aggressively into Turn 1, leading to some light contact. Leclerc, who was conserving tires as per the divine intervention of team strategy, felt Sainz's manoeuvre was too aggressive and reported damage to his car. Leclerc remarked, "He complains too much," expressing his frustration over the Spaniard's driving style. Sainz, defending his actions, stated, "I was attacking as I had to with our strategies,”

We don’t really see these kinds of conflicts between the Ferrari pairing, more so between the drivers themselves and their engineers and pit strategists, so let’s hope they can keep it together if they want to really bring the fight to Red Bull and McLaren.

Back on Top

Max Verstappen dazzled at the Spanish Grand Prix, clinching his seventh win in eleven races this season. Despite a non-pole start, he swiftly passed Lando Norris and fiercely battled George Russell to reclaim the lead. This win extended his championship lead to a substantial 69 points from Lando Norris and a massive 115 from his teammate. The weekend also marked his 763rd consecutive day as championship leader, having begun this lead at this Grand Prix two years ago.

Max Verstappen on his 61st career victory

We drove quite a defensive race... Lando and McLaren, they were very, very quick today … we drove quite, I think, an aggressive strategy, but luckily it paid out until the end.

Silver Arrows head in the right direction

Mercedes' back-to-back 3-4 finishes signal a positive turn for the Brackley team in their quest to regain the front of the grid - they significantly outpaced Ferrari in both qualifying and race performance, with Hamilton achieving his first podium of 2024 and highest Grand Prix finish of the year. George Russell, after a stunning start to swoop around the outside of the top three from fourth on the grid, led the opening lap for the second race in a row and successfully defended his position against Charles Leclerc to secure P4.

Lewis Hamilton described his P3 finish as “the best weekend I’ve had all year,” highlighting his record-extending 198th podium. After a tough start, he praised his second and last stints as “very, very strong.” He defended an aggressive move on Carlos Sainz, asserting, “I think it was clean... I left him space.” and expressed optimism about the team's progress, stating, “We’re getting closer... big, big thank you to the team.”

Russell was also quite pleased with his performance, citing the similarity to Fernando Alonso’s start to the 2013 Spanish GP. Team Principal Wolff expressed his satisfaction with the weekend:

Toto Wolff on the team’s performance at the Spanish Grand Prix

We have taken several steps forward in the previous few races and it is good to see these confirmed here in Spain … we are on a positive development trajectory, and it **feels good** to be back in the game.

Papaya Pains

Lando Norris believes he "should have won", but a poor start cost him the victory; starting from pole, Norris lost positions to a daring George Russell and defending Max Verstappen. Despite an impressive recovery with a long first stint and strategic overtakes, Norris finished P2. He reflected, “The car was incredible today... I just lost it in the beginning... one negative and that kind of ruined everything.” Norris is optimistic about future races and praised his team’s efforts.

It has to be said that the young Brit has been faltering in high-pressure situations recently, a point shared by Norris himself:

“We’re in a good spot and doing well each week, I just need to tidy up a few little bits in the upcoming races.”

— Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri faced a challenging weekend in Barcelona - despite recovering to seventh place in the race, he struggled with pace throughout. The Australian driver expressed surprise at the magnitude of his difficulties and sought answers to understand why his performance was below expectations. The team, however, bagged points in the constructors' standings, closing the gap to Ferrari.

Formula One is off to Austria next time out in the triple header, so make sure to check back for all the best bits here on Race Reaction!

Final race classification

1 - Max VERSTAPPEN

2 - Lando NORRIS

3 - Lewis HAMILTON

4 - George RUSSELL

5 - Charles LECLERC

6 - Carlos SAINZ

7 - Oscar PIASTRI

8 - Sergio PEREZ

9 - Pierre GASLY

10 - Esteban OCON

11 - Nico HULKENBERG

12 - Fernando ALONSO

13 - ZHOU Guanyu

14 - Lance STROLL

15 - Daniel RICCIARDO

16 - Valtteri BOTTAS

17 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN

18 - Alexander ALBON

19 - Yuki TSUNODA