Verstappen takes controlled win at the Spanish Grand Prix

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen strengthened his championship lead at Barcelona by taking his fourth victory of the 2023 F1 season with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finishing the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix. F1Technical’s Balázs Szabó stories from Barcelona.

After securing his first pole place at Barcelona, Max Verstappen retained his lead at the begin from Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton enhancing his beginning place from P4 to P3.

However, Hamilton had contact with Norris on the first lap which compelled the McLaren racer to dive into the pits for a brand new entrance wing and the incident noticed Hamilton lose a spot to Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll.

However, the seven-time world champion may rapidly regain the place, demonstrating spectacular race tempo along with his upgraded Mercedes W14.

In the meantime, Sergio Perez and George Russell have been trying to get better from their lowly grid place. On Lap 6, the Briton made the most of DRS to get by house hero Fernando Alonso at Turn 1. The subsequent lap noticed Perez go round the outdoors of Zhou Guanyu, shifting up into eighth.

Verstappen always constructed up his lead from Sainz with the margin between the Dutchman and the Spaniard rising to five.3s by Lap 11. In the meantime, Hamilton closed in on the Ferrari driver, operating only one.6s behind the Madrid-born driver.

While Sainz wanted to pit for contemporary tyres, Hamilton may lengthen his opening stint till Lap 25 when he got here in for a contemporary set of medium. Russell acquired the identical set of tyres on the subsequent lap with Verstappen additionally finishing his first tyre swap.

While the late cease noticed Hamilton rejoin the observe behind Sainz, he may rapidly shut in on the Spaniard and overtake him whereas his teammate Russell glided by Stroll.

On Lap 30, the order was Verstappen with Hamilton, Sainz, Russell, Stroll, Ocon, Tsunoda, Alonso, Perez and Zhou finishing the prime ten.

Using his contemporary hards, Perez acquired previous Alonso on the subsequent lap, enhancing his place to eighth. Four laps later, Russell stormed previous Sainz into Turn 1 for P3.

In the meantime, Verstappen controlled the race, extending his lead from Hamilton to fifteen.7s, who had a margin of 9.7s from his teammate Russell.

The subsequent lap noticed Sainz dive into the pits for a tyre change with Ferrari giving the Spaniard a brand new set of mediums. After ranging from the pits, his teammate was trying to get better, and he went additionally in for his final tyre change. There was misunderstanding at the Ferrari field although as Leclerc wished a brand new set of softs and he acquired hards as a substitute.

With 20 laps to go, Alonso pitted for a brand new set of Hard compound, however he solely rejoined down in P10. Russell additionally pitted with Mercedes mounting softs onto the upgraded W14.

Lap 51 noticed the different Mercedes driver are available with Hamilton additionally receiving the red-walled C3 compound. Perez additionally pitted shortly afterwards with the Mexican rejoining the motion in P5 behind Sainz.

Alonso was keen to enhance his place, and closed in on Esteban Ocon. Despite a really aggressive defence from the Frenchman, the Spaniard stormed previous the Alpine racer.

With solely 13 laps to go, Verstappen got here in for his final cease, ending the race on the mushy compound. In the meantime, his teammate Perez breezed previous Sainz into Turn 1 for fourth with the Mexican placing Russell in his sights.

Although Perez was catching Russell, he was unable to get into DRS vary and needed to accept P4.

Verstappen went for the quickest lap of the race in the dying minutes of the grand prix, however he then eased off somewhat bit to chalk up his fifth win of the 2023 season. With his third triumph at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Verstappen moved 53 factors away from nearest rival Perez in the race for the drivers’ title.

Mercedes demonstrated the improved race tempo of their closely upgraded W14 with Hamilton and Russell taking second and third with the Anglo-German outfit shifting 18 factors away from third-placed Aston Martin in the Teams’ Championship.

Despite beginning his house race from P2, Sainz needed to accept P5, adopted by the Aston Martin duo of Stroll and Alonso. Esteban Ocon scored factors with a P8 end after his Monaco podium with Zhou Guanyu and Pierre Gasly finishing the prime ten.

Leclerc was unable to safe a degree after his disastrous qualifying session that led to a Q1 exit yesterday, which means that he has solely scored in 4 of the seven grands prix to this point in 2023.