Sunday Debrief: Verstappen extends championship lead with a win in Spain

Another calm race for Verstappen as the Dutch driver sailed to victory, leading all 66 Laps. Mercedes new upgrades and set up proved to be a success, with both cars showing strong page resulting in a 1-2 for the German team, their first since Brazil 2022.

image credit: motorsport.com

Max Verstappen lines up on pole for the first time in his career for Sundays Race. Carlos Sainz lined up on the front row in P2 for his home race, with his former McLaren teammate Lando Norris starting from P3.

After qualifying P4, Pierre Gasly started the race from P10 after receiving a 6-place grid penalty for impeding Verstappen and Sainz during qualifying. Meanwhile Leclerc and Sargeant started the race from the pit lane.

Going into Turn 1 Verstappen stays ahead of Sainz. Behind them Hamilton passes Norris going into Turn 2, the pair making contact after Hamilton gets ahead causing Norris to return to the pits for a new front wing bringing him back out at the back of the grid. Hamilton shortly getting passed by Lance Stroll.

image credit: motorsport.com

In the battle with Sainz and Hamilton for P2, Sainz pits on Lap 16 for a set of medium tyres, while Hamilton stays out commenting on the radio “Tyres are still really good mate”, the British driver flying on the soft tyres. Sainz’s teammate Leclerc pitting a lap later on Lap 17 coming out in P17.

Hamilton coming into the pits on Lap 25 for a fresh set of medium tyres re-joining the track 2 seconds behind Sainz. Hamilton catching Sainz on Lap 28 going into Turn 1 moving back up into P2. Hamilton’s teammate George Russel pitting a lap later coming out in P6 just ahead of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.

Hamilton pitting again on Lap 51 for a set of soft tyres, staying in P2, Perez pitting behind him from P3 coming back out in P5. Verstappen making his first pit stop on Lap 53 after leading the whole race on hard tyres, coming in for a fresh set of softs, closing the gap between himself and Hamilton in P2 down to just 16 seconds.

Yuki Tsudoda was handed a 5-second time penalty on Lap 62 for forcing another driver off track earlier in the race, dropping him from P9 to P11 out of the points.

Towards the end of the race Verstappen was shown the black and white flag for exceeding track limits at Turn 10, this played no impact on the outcome of the race with Verstappen cruising to victory. Shortly after being shown the black and white flag, Verstappen fought for the fastest lap of the race before being told on the radio to “stay between track lines”.

Verstappen cruised to victory, followed by Hamilton and Russell who took the chequered flag to complete the podium. Ferrari had another underwhelming race with Leclerc finishing outside the points in P11, while Sainz finished in P5 after starting on the front row in P2.