Lando Norris’s illusion lasted until the first braking point: the McLaren driver at the start only kept an eye on Max Varstappen who, however, maliciously overtook him on the inside of the first corner, while George Russell with the Mercedes threw himself at The outsider took the lead with a masterful maneuver, holding the lead for two laps. Then the Dutchman took control of the race and never relinquished it except during the pit stops.
Red Bull is certainly not the best single-seater of the moment, but Verstappen gave another demonstration of his unsurpassed talent to take the 61st career victory in the Spanish GP which is the seventh victory of the season and the fourth in Barcelona, the third of line. The Milton Keynes wall had clear ideas even before the start when it sent the three-time world champion to the start with a set of used softs, while the poleman Norris had the new ones, reserving the fresh set for the last stint in way to wear out McLaren.
Verstappen sees Charles Leclerc’s role as challenger in the world championship disappearing, because the figure of Lando Norris emerges clearly and with second place in Montmelò he becomes the pursuer with a gap of 69 points from Max and with a two-point advantage over the Monegasque. Max is a “monster” because he makes simple victories very difficult, given that today the MCL38 was the most competitive single-seater. Lando finished 2.2 seconds behind the Red Bull and also took the fastest lap (1’17” 115), but the wrong start cost him a possible victory and the defeat hurts a lot because he wasted a great opportunity.
Zac Brown’s boy felt the pressure and paid for it, while the imperturbable Max collected the full spoils: Lando with the pole and the fastest lap testifies that the potential was there and something was left behind due to inexperience. The two, as expected, had a race of their own: Lewis Hamilton came behind, returning to the podium after 12 GPs. The seven-time world champion opted for the softs for the final stint of the race, while Russell was put on the hards. George, therefore, had to surrender to the more experienced teammate, but he sent the crowd into raptures for overtaking Norris on the outside on lap 35 when he reacted to the maneuver suffered by Lando, when the two carried out the stretch side by side of track from turn 3 to turn 7. Then the superiority of the papaya car made the difference, but Russell does not emerge as a loser from this event, given that in the final he had to defend himself from Charles Leclerc’s desperate attack.
Mercedes stands as third force, overtaking Ferrari which is Barcelona’s truly great defeat. The technical updates did not give the desired results and the SF-24 did not allow Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to go beyond fifth and sixth place. The Monegasque complained about the contact with Sainz at the first corner of Lap 3, so there was also a useless fraticidal war while it was time to save the tyres. The Scuderia doesn’t have the pace to fight at the top: Spain shows values that have changed because McLaren and Mercedes didn’t bring anything new, but both were ahead of the updated reds.
Oscar Piastri is seventh with the second McLaren: he has a winning car and his inability to exploit the material available in qualifying (too many errors) penalizes him heavily. McLaren is missing the important points from the Australian to accelerate the pursuit of Ferrari to become second in the Constructors’ championship: Maranello has a lead of 33 points which is no longer many. In the Scuderia they have to lace up their shoes because the results are not up to expectations and in the next two weeks there are two more events on fast tracks: Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.
Sergio Perez attempted the three-stop card: the Mexican with the second Red Bull did not go beyond a disappointing eighth place. The RB20 is no longer the dominant car at the beginning of the season and Checo is unable to keep up with the leading group. Inexplicable as well as unacceptable, given that Perez slipped to fifth place in the drivers’ championship, while he was solidly second.
The last two positions in the points are the prerogative of Alpine with PIerre Gasly just ahead of Esteben Ocon. Some will say that these are the first signs of Briatore’s cure, but there is no doubt that in Enstone they have taken the right path to abandon the bottom of the rankings. Nico Hulkenberg missed out on the points zone with the best Haas and the German is the last driver with full laps, given that all the others were lapped.
The first on this list is Fernando Alonso with Aston Martin: the Iberian competing in front of his fans for the 21st time is forced into a supporting role that he certainly cannot like. He will make his voice heard because it is not the role he intended to play with the “green girl”.
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