Verstappen held off a late charge from Norris to claim victory in Spain while Lewis Hamilton took his first podium of the season.

Finlay McSporran
Published: 17:16, 23rd June 2024

Race Report

Pole-sitter Norris got a decent start, moving to the inside to cover off a fast starting Verstappen. Behind them, George Russel took advantage of the slipstream to pull out alongside Norris as they approached turn one, going around the outside of both cars to take the race lead. Norris was forced to back off in order to avoid making contact with Russel, allowing Verstappen to slip down the inside and take 2nd place.

He wouldn’t stay there for long however, as on lap 3 of the grand prix Verstappen passed Russel for the race lead. A few laps later and Russel came in from 2nd to make his first stop of the race on lap 15. Now in clean air, McLaren driver Lando Norris opted to stay out and chase down Verstappen rather than come in to cover off the undercut from Russel. This didn’t result in much however as Verstappen came in just two laps later, leaving Norris in the lead of the race.

Norris finally came in on lap 24 of the grand prix, coming back out in 5th place, behind George Russel and Max Verstappen who was back in front as the race approached the halfway mark. On lap 32, Norris passed Hamilton for 3rd place and by lap 35 was right behind the other Mercedes of George Russel.

Norris took advantage of the fresher tyres to go round the outside of Russel at turn 3, but Russel wasn’t going down without a fight, as he tried to come back at him through turn 4, embarking on an almighty battle through turns 3-7 with Norris eventually winning out as Verstappen extended his lead out in front.

With his tyres fading, Mercedes brought Russel in for his second stop of the race, hard tyres going onto the W15. Shortly afterwards his teammate Lewis Hamilton came in for his second stop, this time softs going on the Mercedes. Hamilton put the softs to good use, passing his teammate on lap 52 to take a spot on the podium.

Back in front, the gap between Verstappen and Norris was down to 5 seconds and by lap 48 both drivers had made their final stop of the race. The chase was on, with Max’s engineer telling him to pick up the pace as Norris started to eat into Verstappen’s lead.

By lap 65 the gap was down to 2.5 seconds, but it was too late for Norris as Verstappen crossed the line to take his 61st victory in F1, with Norris charge taking him close but not close enough, similar to the Imola grand prix earlier this year.

Behind them, Lewis Hamilton extended his record of most podiums in F1, claiming his 198th.

It was also a rare good day for Alpine, as they finished with both drivers in the points, the first time they’ve done that since the Brazilian Grand prix last year, moving them ahead of Haas to 7th in the constructors standings.

Speaking of constructors, Sergio Perez was back in the points albeit almost a minute behind teammate Verstappen. He brought home 4 points for Redbull which could be crucial in the fight for the constructors championship given the recent form of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.

Race Results

#	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME
1	Max VERSTAPPEN	Red Bull	LAP 66
2	Lando NORRIS	McLaren	+2.219
3	Lewis HAMILTON	Mercedes	+17.790
4	George RUSSELL	Mercedes	+22.320
5	Charles LECLERC	Ferrari	+22.709
6	Carlos SAINZ	Ferrari	+31.028
7	Oscar PIASTRI	McLaren	+33.760
8	Sergio PÉREZ	Red Bull	+59.524
9	Pierre GASLY	Alpine	+62.025
10	Esteban OCON	Alpine	+71.889
11	Nico HULKENBERG	Haas	+79.215
12	Fernando ALONSO	Aston Martin	1L
13	Guanyu ZHOU	Stake	1L
14	Lance STROLL	Aston Martin	1L
15	Daniel RICCIARDO	VCARB	1L
16	Valtteri BOTTAS	Stake	1L
17	Kevin MAGNUSSEN	Haas	1L
18	Alexander ALBON	Williams	1L
19	Yuki TSUNODA	VCARB	1L
20	Logan SARGEANT	Williams	2L

Next up-The F1 circus heads to the Redbull ring this week for the second race in this triple header, before heading to Silverstone the week after for the British GP which marks the halfway point of this season.

Tags:

Formula 1

Spanish Grand Prix