SPANISH GP REVIEW: DID THE QUICKEST DRIVER WIN?
When it mattered, Max Verstappen did it again. The flying dutchman claimed his 61st victory in Formula One, meaning he has now more races compared to any driver since his Red Bull debut. Despite Max finishing on the top step yet again this season, was he the second quickest driver today?
QUALIFYING
The 2024 Spanish Grand Prix produced another beauty of a quali session. Generally, whoever starts on pole here, has the quickest car.
Lando Norris claimed pole with a truly magicable lap, looking close to perfection when watching the Brit’s onboard. The Brit beat Verstappen to pole by 2 hundreths of a second, with the two drivers looking levels above the rest of the field. Lewis Hamilton qualified 3rd, 3 tenths behind the top two. A class above the rest.
STARS OF QUALI: LANDO NORRIS, PIERRE GASLY
It wasn’t just Norris who produced a beauty of a lap, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly performed brilliantly when it mattered and produced a spectacular lap. Despite teammate Ocon still being comfortably ahead in their head-to-head qualifying battle, Gasly has qualified ahead in the last 3 races. Impressive form from Gasly, proving Alpine are right to keep him and not Ocon. Both Alpine’s qualified in the top 10 for the first time this year. Since shedding the weight, their car has performed much better, particularly in the high speed. It looks like they’re back fighting in the midfield.
FLOPS OF QUALI: OSCAR PIASTRI, RACING BULLS
Prior to Sergio Perez’s three place drop, the starting grid fro Sunday would have been a McLaren sandwich in the top 10. This exaggerates Piastri’s poor quali session, with the Aussie not able to set a time in Q3 due to a lap time deleted and taking a trip to the gravel on his runs. Not the usual qualifying performance from Oscar, one to forget for F1’s current youngest driver.
RB were very optimistic coming into the weekend, confident of a Q3 appearance due to the vast amount of visible upgrades arriving. However, it looks like the upgrades haven’t worked and, if anything, has downgraded the car. Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda were knocked out in Q1, a very surprising result considering their performance so far this season.
THE RACE:
Despite Lando Norris’ best efforts, he was overtaken by both Verstappen and Russell into turn 1, moving him down to third from pole straight away. Russell, who started fourth, had a brilliant stat, overtaking his teammate off the line and then gaining a slipstream from the Red Bull, allowing him to swoop around the outside and take the lead impressively. A bad start for Norris, with the heroics of the day before removed.
During the first stint, Norris was unable to overtake a slower Russell ahead, allowing Max to create a 4 second buffer to both drivers. Due to this buffer, when the rest pit, Norris stayed out and decided to create a tyre offset to the rest of the field. Leclerc also followed this path, hoping this would unlock Ferrari’s performance, which was yet again lacking. Ferrari were comfortable the fourth quickest team this weekend, only really fighting themselves. When this came apparent between Leclerc and Sainz, both their aims was to be the leading prancing horse. Contact occured when Sainz overtook Leclerc in the first stint, with the Spaniard clealry feeling racey at home.
As the second stint proceeded, Norris was evidently the quickest man on track, but now with 4 cars between him and Verstappen. Norris dispatched all of these, moving up to second crucially, with a 8.5 second gap he needed to chase down. Verstappen was looking comfortable in front, but with Lando pushing fast behind, the Dutchman had to stay focused.
Teams began to split strategies when the second stop came around, with Russell and Sainz choosing to box early and go hards, whereas the rest of the top cars choosing softs. Shorlty after these decisions, it was evident the softs were the quicker strategy, allowing Lewis Hamilton to overtake his teammate and move him into third. Although Norris had a slow stop, he still crucially came out ahead of both Mercedes, now chasing an 8 second gap ahead.
There were not enough laps for Norris to fight Verstappen, unfortunately for us viewers, with the pair finishing just over two seconds between each other. If Lando had a better start, it was likely the Brit would’ve taken his second race win. However, with Norris and McLaren recently, it feels very would’ve should’ve could’ve when challenging Max, who always comes out on top. Lewis Hamilton finished off the podium, with Mercedes’ upgrades looking to put them ahead of the Ferrari’s, who finished 5th and 6th. Leclerc’s tyre strategy nearly allowed him to overtake the slower Russell infront, but again, not enough laps left. A disappointing weekend for Piastri had him finish seventh, with a typical poor Perez performance had him Eighth. The Alpine’s maintained there impressive Saturday performance, rounding out the top 10.
Formula One returns next week in Austria, for the second of a triple header. Can Norris beat Verstappen next time? Has he proved he is the quickest on pure pace? I guess more we be found out next time.