Mercedes surprises at a Spanish Grand Prix dominated by Max Verstappen.
Max Verstappen rises with an undisputed victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, where he has dominated from start to finish and has had no rival. Carlos Sainz, who tried to challenge him at the start, was overtaken by some combative Mercedes and by Sergio Pérez, with which he finally finished in fifth position.
Fernando Alonso, in his worst race of the season, finished in seventh place. His weekend was conditioned by the damage to the flat bottom yesterday in qualifying, and today he did not have enough pace to come back.
Carlos Sainz knew that the only moment in which he could put Max Verstappen on the ropes was at the start, since then the Dutchman would begin to set his pace. The man from Madrid made a magnificent start and stood up to Max, but at the end of the straight the champion defended himself and made it impossible for the Spaniard to overtake.
Behind him, a surprising Lance Stroll was placed, with Hamilton fourth, while Lando Norris was erased from the fight for the podium after a contact with the seven-time world champion that made him stop in the pits to change nose. Alonso moved up to sixth but soon lost position to George Russell who had great pace.
Fernando did not manage to get a good rhythm out of his AMR23, lapping two seconds behind the head of the race, which made him fall into the clutches of drivers like Sergio Pérez, who had been coming up, or Guanyu Zhou. In fact, after his first pit stop, on lap 20, he was overtaken by Tsunoda and by Zhou, although Alonso did not take long to recover position with the Chinese.
However, moments later, ‘Checo’ Pérez also overtook Alonso, moving the Spaniard to ninth place. Meanwhile, Sainz fell to third place, surpassed by Lewis Hamilton; and his teammate George Russell would soon also overtake Carlos, leaving the man from Madrid off the podium halfway through the race.
Mercedes is BACK! What a missile that Hamilton carries 🚀🚀#SpainDAZNF1 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/20HES5Yhxq
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) June 4, 2023
Sainz tried to defend himself from Pérez, who was behind at a very good pace, with his second stop, on lap 42, putting on hard rubber, with which he considerably improved his race pace, setting his best times. Alonso did the same three laps later, using the same compound to face the final stretch of the race.
Alonso, also with better pace, overtook Zhou on lap 49 and reduced the gap to Tsunoda, only to overtake him one lap later and take eighth place. The next car to beat was Esteban Ocon, whom he caught and overtook on lap 52, although this time it was not so easy, as the Frenchman moved on the home straight when Alonso passed him. Fernando was already seventh.
Sainz was unable to defend himself against Pérez, who had been coming back with new rubber on his Red Bull, and thus the man from Madrid fell to fifth place. The Mexican, with the aim of making amends for his poor classification on Saturday, began to reduce Russell’s time to qualify for the podium, but it was soon seen that his superiority was not enough.
There is no stopping Max Verstappen, Mercedes surprises
From the start, Verstappen did not even appear on the screen. After making it clear to Carlos Sainz at the start that this race was his, the Dutchman escaped and began to put land in the middle with his pursuers, reaching the end of the race with almost 20 seconds on the rest of the classifieds, a difference that It’s starting to be common now.
Verstappen’s only ‘concern’ was a black and white flag for having exceeded the limits of the track up to three times – one more would incur a penalty – but it was not a big problem, since even with this the world champion marked the lap fast with four laps to go.
After 66 laps, Max crossed the finish line in undisputed first position, thus taking victory in the Spanish GP, 24 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton and almost 30 seconds ahead of George Russell. Pérez finished fourth, with Sainz fifth, far from what was expected in the home race, where he had started second.
Lance Stroll was this time the best Aston Martin on the track, followed by Fernando Alonso (7th) who this time had no rhythm, and despite the fact that the Spaniard was just over a second behind his teammate in the last moments of the test He said he wouldn’t attack him. Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Guanyu Zhou completed the ‘top 10’.
After the Spanish GP, Formula 1 faces a week off before returning to action with the Canadian GP, the weekend of June 16-18.
