F1
The reigning world champion captures the lead of the title chase for the first time this year in Barcelona, with Oracle Red Bull Racing team-mate Sergio Pérez making it a 1-2 for the team.
The Spanish Grand Prix is Formula One's version of buying property; as the old adage reminds us, it's all about location, location, location. At the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, that 'location' has historically been the front row of the grid; in 31 previous instalments of the race, 90 percent of the winners have come from the front row, 23 of them from pole.
With that stat in mind, Oracle Red Bull Racing's reigning world champion Max Verstappen at least had a one in two chance of probable victory at the track where he broke through for his maiden F1 win six years ago; second on the grid to weekend-long benchmark Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), the Dutchman had a clear track in front of him at the start and, with it, a decent place from which to launch an attack across the ensuing 66 laps on a sweltering-hot Sunday in the municipality of Montmelo.
It seemed like a simple strategy to the top step, but what can often be a soporific Grand Prix in the Spanish sunshine was anything but. Verstappen struggled on and off with an intermittently-working Drag Reduction System (DRS) in the early stages, and after the Dutchman spun at Turn 4 on Lap 9, Leclerc escaped to a massive lead, Verstappen trying in vain to get past the stubborn Mercedes of George Russell for more than 20 laps.
Then, a twist – from frustration to a slice of good fortune as Leclerc retired with an engine failure after 27 laps, leaving Verstappen to take his fourth win in six races this year. Even better for Red Bull Racing, it opened up an opportunity for a second 1-2 for the team this season, with Sergio Pérez second again as they were at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last month.
Verstappen's victory – allied with Leclerc's first non-score of the season – saw the reigning world champion take a six-point championship lead, and was his second win at the Spanish GP, the first coming on his first race weekend for the team in 2016 when he was just 18 years old.
What's more, it marked a milestone in a career already littered with them; for the first time, Verstappen won three Grands Prix on the bounce at three different circuits (Imola, Miami, Barcelona), after previously taking three wins at a row in two different tracks (France before winning at the Austrian and Styrian GPs at the Red Bull Ring last year).
Pérez's second place matched his results at Albert Park and Imola earlier this year, while Russell was third, extending his run of finishing all six races this season inside the top five.
Here's how a trophy-winning Spanish Bull run played out under a sweltering late spring sun in Barcelona.
Thankful Max back in charge
Taking the lead in the world championship after Spain would have been the furthest thing from Verstappen's mind after Saturday's qualifying session, which saw Leclerc on pole by three-tenths of a second after the Monegasque driver had finished atop the timesheets in all three practice sessions. That aim would have seemed even further away after he ran off track and ceded positions to Russell and Pérez, but Verstappen dug in and dialled up his determination.
With his DRS only occasionally playing nice, Verstappen changed tack, went for a strategy that made for running in clear air on fresh tyres with three pit stops, and with Leclerc an early spectator, got to the front when Pérez played the team game and moved over with 17 laps remaining.
"I suddenly had a lot of tailwind so I lost the rear and went off," explained Verstappen of his early-race visit to the Turn 4 gravel trap.
"I tried to pass but my DRS was not always working, so that made it very tough. But we managed to do the strategy to get ahead again and do our own race, and eventually win the race.
"The behaviour of the car was good on the soft (tyres), but also the medium (tyres) I think it was working quite well. In the end we managed to get ahead.
"I tried to stay focused, of course it is not nice when stuff like that happens, but at the end of course very happy to win and very happy for Checo. It was a great result for the team.
"(It was) a difficult beginning, but a good end.
The victory extended Verstappen's statistically-curious all-or-nothing title defence; if he finishes in 2022, he wins. Better still, his fifth consecutive Spanish podium – plus Pérez's 19 points for second and the fastest lap of the race (1min 24.108secs on Lap 55) saw Red Bull take over the lead of the constructors' championship too, 195 points to 169 over Ferrari.
"It was a race of two halves, and nothing seemed to be working for us in the first half," Oracle Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said.
"When (Verstappen) was stuck behind George (Russell) and his DRS was intermittently working, we felt our best race was converting him to a three-stop (strategy). As it panned out, that was the preferred strategy."
Checo plays the team game
Pérez expressed some disappointment that he wasn't able to fight Verstappen for victory so early in the season, but did break new ground at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, a circuit he'd raced at 15 times across F1 and GP2 but had never made the podium before Sunday.
The 32-year-old, who became a father for the third time between the previous race in Miami and Spain to son Emilio, vacated his car for Red Bull Junior and F2 driver Juri Vips for Friday's opening practice, but made light of that truncated build-up by being the man on the move when the lights went out from fifth on the grid.
With Leclerc out of the race and Verstappen's amended strategy, Pérez led for 11 laps in all (the second time he'd led a race this year after spending 14 laps in P1 in Saudi Arabia), and boosted his points total for the season to 85, just 19 behind Leclerc for second overall.
"I think it was close, but in the end it was a great team result and I'm happy for that," Pérez said.
Horner was quick to pay tribute to Pérez doing what was best for the team in trying circumstances.
"I've got to shout out for Checo playing the team game today," Horner said.
"They weren’t in the same race, their strategies were different, but they worked together fantastically well. The problem that we had, we've got temperatures raging – water, oil, brakes – and the last thing you want to risk is a DNF when you've got two cars that can potentially nail a 1-2 (finish).
"They were on different strategies, so it wasn't a straight fight. Max had such a tyre advantage, and of course Checo's tyres wouldn’t have made it, we don't think, to the end. So that's why he pitted towards the end of the race, and to get that valuable fastest lap (point) as well."
Tsunoda's point for perseverance
On a day that was hotter than any Spanish Grand Prix in recent memory – the track temperature nudged 50 degrees at the start of the race – Yuki Tsunoda's solitary point for 10th place for Scuderia AlphaTauri was hard-earned, and well deserved.
The Japanese outqualified team-mate Pierre Gasly to start 13th, first climbed into the top 10 as early as Lap 8, and denied Mick Schumacher (Haas) a maiden world championship point by barging back inside the top 10 after his final pit stop with 10 laps to go. That one point – AlphaTauri's sole point in the past two Grands Prix – ensured the team retained seventh place in the constructors' standings.
Gasly's race was less fruitful, the Frenchman not spending a single lap inside the top 10 after starting 14th and running in that place for 48 of the 66 laps. In the end, a late pass of Schumacher saw him improve to 13th, but his pointless run extended to three races.
A tale of two Spaniards
After two years of Spanish Grands Prix without fans being permitted to attend, the Catalans poured into the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for Sunday's race, the 121,000-plus throng hoping for big things from local heroes Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine).
Sainz (fourth) finished the best of them but with a tinge of disappointment after the Ferrari driver spun off at the same corner that temporarily tripped up Verstappen on Lap 7, and while he surged back to snare 12 world championship points, Sainz would have wanted more after starting third on the grid.
Alonso, on the other hand, could barely have got more out of his Alpine, after a scrappy qualifying saw him mired in 17th place. Alpine elected to change his engine and the veteran Spaniard started last, but he produced several signature swashbuckling overtaking moves to finish ninth, one lap down on Verstappen but with two unlikely world championship points in his pocket.
F1's most famous backdrop
We've been to venues brand-new (Miami), venues getting their F1 feet wet (Saudi Arabia) and returned to old favourites (Australia) so far this season, but there's no other race that screams 'F1' more than the Monaco Grand Prix in just one week's time (May 29).
This year marks the 79th running of the jewel in F1's crown, where glamour, prestige and famous faces come together for a week-long party against the backdrop of a motor race.
After the race didn’t take place at all in 2020 and ran in front of a capped crowd figure of just 7500 spectators last May, expect this year's instalment to be the Monaco we know and love – a packed harbour full of eye-wateringly expensive boats, fans finding any vantage point they can around the famous 3.337km track to view the action, and arguably the most breathtaking qualifying session of the season, where drivers lay it all on the line at a circuit where there's no margin for error – and where a good grid slot is a must.
Verstappen took his first win on the Monte Carlo streets last year, while Red Bull Racing has a long history of success at the venue, Mark Webber (twice), Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo have also been victorious for the team in Monaco since 2010.
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