Heroics Into Saint Devote

Well I think it’s safe to say this weekend made up for the disappointment and lack of excitement in Monaco last time out. From yet another win from Piastri and Hulkenberg points to Verstappen nearing a race ban and comments about mariokart, the Spanish Grand Prix was certainly a spectacle. But lets go through it chronologically shall we?

Practice and Qualifying.

Even among the new technical directive controversy, it was once again Mclaren setting the pace in all three practice sessions this weekend, with Norris leading the way in FP1, and Piastri leading both FP2 and 3 in what seemed to be a rather mixed up order. But it was Sauber who has my attention. Whilst it was only practice, it seemed like they’d had a turn in pace which coincided with the new directive the FIA implemented this weekend to control how much flex the cars wings had. Whilst they didn’t break into the top 10 by the end, both drivers were at the sharp end of those cars that usually scrap for 11th and 12th. And Hadjar looking to complete his first triple-header in Formula One with three points finishes. Looking second best this weekend though, was Ferrari, who regularly featured just behind the Mclaren rocketships. But onto qualifying I think.

Q1 was not a formality by any means for Red Bull Racing, with Yuki Tsunoda struggling again with the RB21, and bowing out at the first hurdle, qualifying in last place, more than 3 tenths adrift from safety. Not the result the Japanese driver would’ve been looking for. Also falling at the first time of asking was the Alpine of Franco Colapinto, which suffered a gearbox issue when leaving the pits for his final flying lap, leaving the Argentine in 19th. Carlos Sainz qualified 18th in his first home Grand Prix for Williams, with teammate Alex Albon going just 2 tenths faster in Q1. 17th went the way of Esteban Ocon’s Haas, just behind Nico Hulkenberg in 16th, 2 hundredths off safety.

Q2 was less concerning, with no real surprises dropping out before the top-10 shootout. Bearman, who has been struggling for pace recently, outqualified his teammate and qualified 15th, behind the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, which later pulled out of the Grand Prix due to medical concerns over his hand, which he previously broke in a cycling accident ahead of the 2023 season. 13th, 12th and 11th were all closer, with Lawson, Bortoleto and Albon all missing out on the top 10 in that order.

Q3 was where things got real. It looked like pole could go anybody’s way. Both Mclarens, Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc and even Hamilton looked to be in the fight for pole, though it was of course, Oscar Piastri who prevailed, setting the largest pole gap we’ve seen this season, at just over 2-tenths from teammate Norris. Verstappen went third, before Russell went fourth, having set the exact same lap time as Max. Next came Hamilton in P5, Antonelli P6, Leclerc 7th, Gasly 8th, Hadjar 9th and home-town hero Fernando Alonso breaking into the top 10, looking to score his first points of the season on home soil.

The Race.

Before the race, the news broke that Tsunoda would start from the pitlane due to changes in parc ferme by the Red Bull team. Everybody bar Tsunoda started on the softs in what everybody expected to be a 2 stop, soft-medium-soft for most, and soft-medium-medium for Leclerc, who was the only one with two sets of the medium tyre ready to use. The hard was not expected to be seen as, due to the characteristics of the Catalunya circuit and high track temperatures of near 50 degrees celcius, the C5 hard tyre would not have the pace, nor the longevity the teams need.

On the race start, it was a great launch from the polesitter, and the Dutchman in 3rd, who beat out Norris into turn 1 and claimed second for himself. Russell in the Mercedes however, dropped like a stone and fell behind both Hamilton and Leclerc, who had amazing starts respectively, by turn 5. Also starting well was Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber, who went from 15th to 10th on the first lap. For which he was noted and under investigation for leaving the track at turn 2 and gaining a lasting advantage. But due to the fact he followed the race director’s instructions and followed the perscribed rejoin route, he was quickly cleared of any wrongdoing. But it was Albon who had the roughest start, breaking his front wing and pitting for a new one on Lap 6. But by lap 13, things began unravelling for the second-placed Verstappen, who claimed he had “no grip compared to them [Mclaren].” Norris passed Verstappen into the first turn, with Verstappen unable to defend. Curiously however, Verstappen pulled the trigger that lap and came into the pits for a fresh set of the soft compound tyre, seemingly triggering an undercut on the Mclarens ahead. What I found rather amusing was how relaxed Mclaren engineers sounded, until they realised what Red Bull was doing. I could picture Will Joseph putting a cup of tea down and saying “Hold on a minute…” while watching Verstappen’s sector times.

Hamilton was next into the pits on lap 16, taking a new set of Mediums, with Xavi telling him they were ‘protecting from the undercut’. Leclerc was told to give it all he had that lap, before he came in for the same tyres. But it was Verstappen putting on a show, going for moves in unorthodox places, like going around the outside of Antonelli at turn 10, as he charged his way back up to third place. Alonso was also giving the Spanish fans something to cheer about after the disappointment of Sainz’ 10 second pitstop as he danced around the outside of Colapinto at the long right-hander of turn 3.

Norris came in on lap 21, after Mclaren asked Piastri is “lap 25 is possible?” to which Oscar replied with “Possible, but difficult.” sounded relaxed and chilled as ever in the lead by about 5 seconds from teammate Norris. Piastri then came in on lap 22, opening the doors for Verstappen who took the lead of the race. It was around now that heads were being raised by Verstappen and Red Bull who looked to be going for an alternative 3-stop strategy. But behind him, Lawson and Albon were coming to blows at turn 1. Lawson, who was seemingly bumping into everybody, made contact with the British-Thai driver, causing Albon to dive for the escape round on the inside of T2, and maintaining his position ahead of Lawson. The next lap, Lawson went for the move again, making it clean until Albon made contact with Lawson and broke his front wing again. It was then that he was informed by the team to “box to retire the car”. I suspect they didn’t have anymore front wings left. But on his way in, Albon was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Lawson, meaning he had to serve the penalty and go around for another lap before retiring as to avoid a grid penalty for the next time out in Montreal.

Lawson went on to divebomb Ollie Bearman into t1, like he did Albon, with nothing untoward happening due to it. Verstappen, meanwhile, was revisiting his ‘1973’ joke from Monaco, where he said he ‘had no clutch on upshifts’. Gianpierro Lambiase asked if he meant ‘1973’, to which Max said “maybe 74 now.” Meanwhile, in the cockpit of the number 4, Norris was just being informed on Verstappen, with Will Joseph sounding a little surprised when he said “Verstappen will be in our race. Lets find some pace.” Lando however, was more concerned about the graining and wear his mediums were facing as he pushed. Verstappen was also informed of this, with GP saying “So Mclaren have received the threat now. They are pushing on.” Now this was really clever from Red Bull’s strategy team, I suspect acclaimed Hannah Schmitz was behind the idea.

Fast forward 10 laps or so, and Verstappen stops again for a new soft, and sets his sights on closing down the slowing Mclarens ahead. And it would’ve worked for the Milton Keynes outfit if it weren’t for Antonelli’s engine giving up the ghost with around a dozen laps to go. This gave Mclaren the opportunity they needed to double-stack ahead of Verstappen and cancel any benefit the Dutchman had from the noew used-soft tyre. Unfortunately for the Dutchman, this is where his race began to unfold. At the time, Red Bull decided their best move would be to pit for a new hard, the only tyre Verstappen had left to use as appose to staying out on the soft. This proved woeful.

Whilst Antonelli’s car was cleared, lapped cars were still making their way to the back of the pack, much to Lewis Hamilton’s displeasure. The Briton was quoted saying “they love wasting laps” whilst the train of 8 lapped cars were circulating about 30 seconds behind the leaders. This made me chuckle as I found it ironic. The lapped cars were among the reasons Abu Dhabi 2021 was so controversial, as Michael Masi did not allow lapped cars to rejoin the back of the pack before the Safety Car came in. And Lewis Hamilton complained in both instances. Then and now. But anyway. It’s restart time.

HOLY HELL! HOW DID HE HOLD ONTO THAT? Verstappen gets almost completely sideways out of the final corner on the cold hard tyre, giving Leclerc a golden opportunity to take another podium for the Scuderia. The two made contact on the straight as Leclerc seemed to move left in an attempt to force his way through. Though nothing came of it after an investigation. Good decision. the 63 car pulled a vintage George Russell move and sent it from another postcode behind, lost control of his car and oversteered into the rear of Verstappen, who dove for the escape road and came out behind Leclerc and infront of Russell. Red Bull however, were skeptical of the legitimacy of this and instructed Verstappen to let Russell by on lap 64 of 66.

Verstappen slowed and moved left out of turn 4 and into turn 5, allowing George to move around the outside. But unbeknownst to anybody but Max, the infuriated Dutchman then got off the brakes and drove directly into the side of Russell and gained himself a 10 second time penalty and 3 penalty points for his troubles.

Ultimately however, it was Piasti who prevailed, recording his 5th win of the year ahead of Norris and Leclerc. Verstappen finished 10th, and recorded his lowest finishing position since Italy, 2017. 2828 days ago. That’s right. In a race in which he has finished, Max Verstappen has not finished outside the points since Spa in 2016. Nearly 9 years ago. Google tells me there have been 152 Grand Prix since the Belgian Grand Prix in 2016, meaning Verstappen has failed to finish outside the points in 152 races, excluding DNFs of course. That is a truly insane statistic for a driver, a World Champion no less.

Thoughts.

The Spanish Grand Prix has been one of my favourites of the season so far. I really rather enjoy a good strategic race, especially when it’s one of the big hitters that takes the gamble. But in all that was happening behind, Piastri, once again, showed his class to take the spoils and the top step. He must be cementing himself in Mclaren history now. He also joins a reputable club of Mclaren drivers who scored 8 consecutive podiums. He joins Aryton Senna and Lewis Hamilton to complete this feat. But with another 15 Grand Prix to go, Oscar could really make a name for himself and challenge for the World Championship in only his third year in the sport. For reference, current world champion Max Verstappen made his debut in the sport in 2015, but his debut for Red Bull Racing in 2016, then took a further 5 years to actually mount a proper challenge for the title in 2021, in what was a spectacle of a season.

A moment for Nico Hulkenberg. The German overtook seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton in the dying laps to secure a 5th place finish, and took home 10 points for Sauber. An incredible result for the Swiss outfit.

And that’s about all I have time for folks. Congratulations to Mclaren for winning their second World Constructor’s Championship in a row in 2025. Best of luck for next year.