Verstappen Takes Victory At Spanish Grand Prix

Title rival Charles Leclerc retired from a dominant lead early on, giving Max Verstappen his fourth victory in six races this season. Team orders imposed by Red Bull on Sergio Perez helped Verstappen win the Spanish Grand Prix. He leads Leclerc by six points heading into the Monaco Grand Prix next weekend.

In the early stages of the race, Verstappen proved difficult for George Russell of Mercedes to overcome. After a long and tough fight, Russell came in third.

Lewis Hamilton recovered to fifth position following his first-lap crash with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, which resulted in a puncture and dropped him from the lead group.

On the final six laps, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton to move into fourth around the outside of Turn One. However, he had to reduce his speed due to a coolant leak, and because he couldn’t use his full power, he dropped back down to fifth.

Russell’s car overheated throughout the race and received the same message to lift-and-coast at the end.

Big Victory For Verstappen

Despite some unfortunate luck in the first three races of the season, Verstappen was fortunate in Spain. Leclerc was on track for an easy win after Verstappen spun into the gravel at Turn Four on lap nine.

Until that moment, the contest had been tight between the two, with Leclerc leading by just two seconds. However, Verstappen’s spin altered the race. It put him behind Russell, and, although Verstappen was battling with a Mercedes, he was unable to beat him.

Despite a malfunctioning DRS overtaking assist, Verstappen was held up for 19 laps by Russell’s superb defensive drive.

Red Bull eventually chose to alter tactics to enable Verstappen to overtake Russell, stopping him on lap 28 for a set of soft tyres. That allowed him to run without interference, and when he stopped for a final time on lap 44 for a set of mediums, he was in front of Russell, with only Perez remaining.

Perez said that the decision to allow Verstappen to pass him on the next lap was “unfair”. He added that he was pleased with the team, but he wanted to discuss it further later.

Ferrari and Leclerc Concerns

On lap 21, Leclerc was almost 30 seconds ahead of Verstappen after the Dutchman spun and left him unchallenged. That was the time when he should have made his first pit stop for fresh tyres.

When Leclerc’s engine blew up on lap six, Russell still had Verstappen held back, and Leclerc was 12.6 seconds ahead.

Given Ferrari’s performance in the slow- and medium-speed corners in Spain, Leclerc will be a strong favourite to win in Monaco. However, the team are now facing a difficult moment, and they must recover quickly.

However, Leclerc’s teammate Sainz was not able to save their day.

Sainz’s mistake was identical to Verstappen’s, only two laps earlier – both drivers hit a tailwind at Turn Four and subsequently lost downforce, leading to impaired performance in the latter stages of the race.

Fortunately for him, Mercedes’ problems late in the race gifted him a free pass to finish fifth, finishing where he would have otherwise.

Mercedes Fight Back

The Mercedes cars were equipped with a new suspension system before the Spanish Grand Prix that should help prevent the car from porpoising on the straight.

Russell started the race in fourth position, driving a strong race. Verstappen was right behind him, and Russell showed the same sort of defensive skills that his predecessor Valtteri Bottas frequently lacked.

On the other hand, Red Bull managed to outsmart Mercedes on strategy and take advantage of their car’s extra speed, leaving Russell with no choice but to watch them pass.

It was a dispiriting start for Hamilton, who was fighting for fifth with Sainz on the first lap but crashed with Magnussen as the Dane tried to pass him on the outside, resulting in a flat left-front tyre.

Hamilton messaged the crew that he believed they would conserve engine mileage by retiring at the back. They responded that they believed he could still finish eighth. Despite driving a spectacular comeback race, he fell back behind Russell at the finish.

Bottas finished sixth, in front of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris of McLaren, who had to see a doctor after the race because he had been feeling ill all weekend.

After starting from the very back of the grid due to an engine change before the race, local hero Fernando Alonso drove perfectly to finish ninth. Yuki Tsunoda earned Alpha Tauri’s final point.

Williams Racing Performance

Nicholas Latifi finished 16th and Alex Albon 18th in the Spanish Grand Prix, after starting 19th and 18th respectively.

What they said:

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:

It was blisteringly hot today, which pushed everything to the limit. We had prepared the cars for these conditions, but even so, we couldn’t make as much progress during the Grand Prix as we had hoped. Managing tyre pace and degradation was very challenging, but nonetheless, Nicholas was able to put together a strong race and manage his tyres well enough to catch Magnussen near the end of the race and claim sixteenth place.

Alex had a strong start and opening stint and although he wasn’t able to make much progress initially, he was able to stay with the pack and give us an opportunity to make progress with strategy. Unfortunately, immediately after his first pitstop he suffered significant damage to the floor, which cost him a lot of aero load. This effect on pace and degradation was stark and ruined Alex’s race before it had really begun.

The layout of the Barcelona circuit, the very high track temperatures and the damage to Alex’s car has tested the FW44 to new limits and has given us some good data to highlight where we need to focus our car development efforts. However, our immediate focus turns to Monaco, which will present a whole new set of challenges for the 2022 cars, but which should also give us an opportunity for a much better weekend.

Alex Albon:

It was a tough day out there; I picked up damage to the floor after my first stop which heavily impacted the car’s performance. There was a lot of tyre degradation and I really struggled with speed, especially into a couple of the corners. It’s unfortunate as it meant we didn’t really stand a chance today, but that’s racing sometimes and we’ll go again next week in Monaco.

Nicholas Latifi:

We struggled on track today with overall pace, but it was also tough on tyre degradation and physically due to the extreme heat. That being said, I’m happy with the way that we managed the tyres and it’s nice to have an aggressive strategy that allowed us to push and race a bit more. I enjoyed chasing down Kevin Magnussen at the end, especially as the Haas is a car that’s much faster than us on paper, and although we weren’t fighting for points, it’s still something to be pleased with.

Spanish Grand Prix Results

2022 FIA Formula One World Championship Schedule