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Driver of the day Max Verstappen returns to the podium in Spain
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen maintains his impressive run in 2019 with third place at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen held off the two Ferraris at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona to take third place on the podium for the second time in the 2019 season. His impressive performance also earned him the fans' vote for 'Driver of the day'.
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, who lead from the first corner, won ahead of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
Starting fourth, Verstappen made a great start and it was three-wide into the first corner as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel challenged the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and pole-sitter Bottas. Somehow the trio avoided contact.
Hamilton profited from the first corner melee to take the lead as Vettel slipped back, having damaged his tyres, and in the early stages Verstappen was running in third, the Dutchman keeping pace with the Mercedes of Bottas. Meanwhile, Verstappen's Aston MartinRed Bull Racing team-mate Pierre Gasly held station in sixth, behind the battling Ferraris of Vettel and Charles Leclerc.
With Hamilton increasing his lead over Bottas, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing pitted the number 33 car on lap 21 to take soft tyres, dropping Verstappen to fifth and moving Leclerc – who had been released from behind his slower team-mate Vettel – to third and Gasly to fourth. But Verstappen quickly regained third after Leclerc pitted on lap 26.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso pair of Daniil Kvyat and Alex Albon consolidated their strong qualifying performances by running ninth and 10th respectively, comfortably ahead of the McLaren of Carlos Sainz Jr and the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo and by the midway point remained line astern in 10th and 11th.
With Verstappen pitting for a second time on lap 44, the Ferrari of Leclerc slipped into the final podium place just as a collision between the McLaren of Lando Norris and Lance Stroll’sRacing Point brought out the safety car. Leclerc pitted and Verstappen retook third.
With the pack closed up following the eight-lap safety car safety period, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Gasly supplied the fireworks by first challenging Leclerc for fifth and then expertly defending off Kevin Magnussen in the Haas to retain sixth.
At the flag Verstappen held on to third behind winner Hamilton and runner-up Bottas to keep up his consistent start to the 2019 season and retake third in the drivers' championship standings as the Torro Rosso drivers both claimed a solid result, with Kyvat coming home in ninth and team-mate Albon just missing out in 11th.
Verstappen mixes pace and maturity to take third in Spain
By taking third place in Spain Max Verstappen has finished fourth or better in the last nine races, and his podium at the Circuit de Catalunya is his second third place in 2019.
The Dutch Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver made the most of a three-wide battle between Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel to emerge from the first corner in third place and combine pace and a canny pit stop strategy to outpace the Ferrari cars to come home in third.
"It was a hectic first corner, so I backed out of it and ended up getting a good position for the rest of lap 1,” said Verstappen after the race. “The Mercedes were too quick today, but we were competitive after them and it's great to be on the podium."
Scuderia Toro Rosso’s strong showing in Spain
After a solid performance in qualifying, which included an appearance in Q3 for Daniil Kvyat and a ninth-place start for the fifth Grand Prix of the season in Spain, the two Toro Rosso drivers enjoyed an eventful race.
Firstly, on lap 25 Daniil Kvyat provided one of the moments of the race and pulled off a stunning move around the outside of Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo at Turn Four to clinically pass the 2007 World Champion.
Not content with one awesome pass, Kyvat did it again on lap 37. On the long drag past the pits the Russian driver pulled off a brilliant bit of DRS slipstreaming, outwitting and passing Romain Grosjean’s Haas en route to his second consecutive ninth place.
Kyvat finished exactly where he qualified, while team-mate Alex Albon, who has enjoyed a stellar start to his debut season in F1, was unlucky to miss out on his third top 10 finish and, despite a hard fought battle with Grosjean’s Haas in the final couple of laps, had to settle for 11th.
Sprucing up the F1 Paddock
F1 Energy Station at Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona
© Andreas Aufschnaiter / Red Bull Content Pool
Formula One informally splits its races into ‘European’ and ‘Flyaway’. The distinction, at times, can be fuzzy around the edges but, in physical, rather than geographic terms, a flyaway involves airfreight and a European race has trucks. A lot of trucks.
After four Grands Prix in tents and temporary buildings, the paddock at the Circuit de Catalunya is suddenly filled with car transporters, tree-houses (above the transporters) and, of course, motorhomes. After 14 years of the Energy Station (in various derivations) Red Bull brought a new unit to Spain.
The Holzhaus (wooden house) is, as the name suggests, constructed primarily of larch and spruce. It caused quite the double-take on Wednesday when team personnel began to arrive and saw a faux Alpine Chalet looming behind the garages.
F1 moving away from Spain?
Mario Andretti wins the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix
© Bernard Cahier/Getty Images
There is a wide anticipation that the return of the Dutch Grand Prix will be announced next week – and while the two announcements will not be contiguous, the expectation is that it will be the Spanish Grand Prix that makes way.
With a Vietnamese Grand Prix already pencilled in for 2020, space on the calendar is at a premium and, of the races with a contract concluding this year, the rumour mill strongly suggests the Spanish Grand Prix is the one likely to disappear.
If so, that represents quite a seismic shift: while not the behemoth it was in Fernando Alonso’s pomp, the Circuit de Catalunya still draws a vast crowd – though perhaps not quite so vast as the one likely to follow Max Verstappen into Zandvoort.
… And then Rio?
While the Zandvoort story has been gathering pace and credibility for a while, an announcement by the Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, saying next year’s Brazilian Grand Prix will be held in Rio de Janeiro, on a to-be-constructed circuit, rather than at Interlagos, was met with genuine surprise.
The official line from Liberty was carefully non-committal, expressing enthusiasm to race in Rio but also reaffirming the existence of an Interlagos contract for 2020.
The Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio, where F1 raced in the 1980s, was demolished to make way for several 2016 Olympic Games venues. The new track will be built on military land in the Deodoro district, where several other Olympic events were also held.
Organisationally, F1 hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with the promoters at Interlagos in recent years – but the circuit has a habit of providing thrilling Grands Prix and has been a firm driver favourite.
“I heard some rumours, but I think it’s a shock,” said Sebastian Vettel, who won the 2012 title at Interlagos. “I think Interlagos is a great place, a lot of history. I think the old track at Interlagos is even better than the current one, but I couldn’t think of anything other than maybe the track being a little bit short that Interlagos is missing.”
