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F1 to 10: Verstappen delivers in tense battle at the Spanish Grand Prix
Spain witnessed a thrilling showdown between Oracle Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris. Dive into the exhilarating race details from Barcelona!
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1. Who won the Formula 1 race in Barcelona? Spain in exactly 75 words*
Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix for the third year in succession, the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver emerging triumphant from a tense strategy battle against McLaren's Lando Norris. The reigning world champion was victorious by 2.219s to extend his series lead to 69 points. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton took his first podium of the year with third place, while Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Pérez finished in eighth after starting from 11th following a grid penalty.
* 2024 is the 75th season of the F1 world championship
2. The thrilling Spanish Grand Prix in six images
Having started on the front row behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, Max Verstappen found himself behind the Mercedes of George Russell by the end of the first lap. Just a few laps later Verstappen would move into first place and cruised to victory, finishing two seconds clear of Norris. Check out these race photos that tell the story of Round 10 of the F1 season in Barcelona.
Verstappen getting ahead of Norris at the start proved to be crucial
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Once Verstappen cleared Russell, the race was run on his terms
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen and Norris have finished in the top two five times in six races
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen pushed hard in qualifying, but fell just 0.02s from pole
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Max's Barcelona barrage continues
With Norris denying Verstappen to take his second F1 pole by just 0.02s on Saturday, Sunday's 66-lap race shaped up as one likely to be decided by tiny margins – and so it proved.
The key to Verstappen's seventh win of the season were the first three laps; on Lap 1, the Dutchman toughed it out with Norris on the run to the first corner to get ahead and, while George Russell took the lead from fourth on the grid, Verstappen demoted the Mercedes driver to second on Lap 3 and dictated his own race from there.
It was tense and tight, but the world champion got the job done
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
A brilliant first pit stop by Oracle Red Bull Racing (1.9s on Lap 17) helped Verstappen to peg the gap to Norris, who ran six laps longer in his opening stint. By the time both drivers had completed their final stops, Verstappen had an eight-second advantage with 18 laps left and while Norris came home strong on fresher tyres towards the end, Verstappen always had the race under control.
The win extended his podium run in Spain to seven consecutive years and came at the track where he took the first of what are now 61 F1 wins, back in 2016 on his debut for the team.
Round 10 of the season was always going to be a trickier proposition for Pérez, who came to Spain with the pain of a three-place grid penalty from the previous race in Canada for driving back to the pits with a damaged car.
The Mexican had suffered through a barren run after not scoring in Monaco or Canada, but made it into Q3 and qualified eighth before his penalty was applied.
The team elected to use a three-stop strategy to help Pérez vault up the order at a track where passing is notoriously difficult – he was one of just two drivers to pit three times – and his late pace enabled him to demote Alpine's Pierre Gasly on the final lap to finish eighth, 59.5s behind his team-mate.
4. Upgrades, down race for RB
Ricciardo battled on, but RB struggled to make inroads in Spain
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Visa Cash App RB arrived in Barcelona with a heavily-revised car – a new floor was one of seven major changes as the F1 arms race gathered its usual steam ahead of a run of three straight races in Europe. Those amendments didn’t bear fruit for Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda however, who finished in 15th and 19th respectively.
The die was cast for the RB team-mates as early as Friday practice, when both drivers finished in the bottom five, and they qualified just 17th (Tsunoda) and 18th (Ricciardo) for the team's worst Saturday showing of the season.
In a race where all 20 drivers who started made it to the chequered flag for the second year running, Ricciardo was the quicker, his two-stop strategy seeing him make a series of overtakes in the final laps to move up the order. Tsunoda’s three-stop strategy didn't pay dividends, with the team failing to score a point for the first time in five Grands Prix.
5. The number you need to know
106: Verstappen's win was his 106th F1 podium, drawing him level with Alain Prost and Fernando Alonso for fourth in the all-time record books.
6. The word from the paddock
What made the race was the beginning – that’s when I had my buffer, that first stint where I could eke out the gap. After that, I think we had to drive quite a defensive race, but we did everything well
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' Championship top 5
Position
Driver
Team
Points
Gap
1
Max Verstappen
Oracle Red Bull Racing
219
-
2
Lando Norris
McLaren
150
-69
3
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
148
-71
4
Carlos Sainz
Ferrari
116
-103
5
Sergio Pérez
Oracle Red Bull Racing
111
-108
Constructors' Championship top 5
Position
Team
Points
Gap
1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
330
-
2
Ferrari
270
-60
3
McLaren
237
-93
4
Mercedes
151
-179
5
Aston Martin
58
-272
8. Away from the track
A race requiring fearless drivers, the best possible car to maximise aerodynamics, gravity and speed, and one where reaction time is as important as seeing the chequered flag? Yes, that’s an apt description of Formula One; it also sums up the latest instalment of the (Un)Serious Race Series, which touched down in Canada for the most recent race of the 2024 season.
The synopsis is simple: take Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, and put their skills to the test as they race down Montreal's Olympic Park in personalised, customised soapbox racers. The racing? Anything but simple on a course that saw them navigate a (fake) snowstorm, make it past the great Canadian crossing and survive a chicane and series of rollers.
Who mastered the course fastest, who aced qualifying and who came out on top? And who had the most fun and went off-script (you’ll never guess)? Watch the video below to find out.
11 min
F1 drivers race soapboxes in Montreal
F1 drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez race soapbox karts against Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo.
9. Where to next, and what do I need to know?
Round 11 (Austria), June 28-30
Circuit name/location: Red Bull Ring, Spielberg
Length/laps: 4.318km, 71 laps (Sprint: 24 laps)
Grands Prix held/debut: 17, 1997
Most successful driver: Max Verstappen (four wins)
Most successful team: Mercedes (five wins)
2023 race recap: 1st: Max Verstappen (Oracle Red Bull Racing), 2nd: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 3rd: Sergio Pérez (Oracle Red Bull Racing)
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
Drifting away
© Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
Drifting … it’s massively popular the world over these days, as the new Drift Masters series can attest, but its origins can be found in Japan in the 1970s. There, Keiichi Tsuchiya, the 'Drift King', elevated drifting to a whole new level in the following decade.
Tsuchiya's skill and style attracted legions of followers, sowing the seeds of a car subculture that would spread well beyond Japan's borders. As international competitions saw Japanese drivers compete against the world's best, those cross-border collaborations helped the sport evolve, enriching and diversifying the global drifting scene.
Dig into drifting’s origin story with this nine-part explainer on the past, present and future of the art right here, and be sure to tune in to the 2024 Drift Masters series live on Red Bull TV, with the next event set for Huvivaltio PowerPark in Finland on July 5-6.
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