Another edition of the Spanish Grand Prix, another Max Verstappen victory. Yet the Dutchman once more had to work hard for this race victory as the chasing pack put up a solid fight. Find out who else starred and struggle from round 10 of the 2024 season:
Top of the class:
Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 2nd | Race: 1st
A seventh win of 2024 was secured by the reigning three-time World Champion at a track that he had won at in 2016, 2022 and 2023. But with this year’s edition, it’s clear to see Red Bull no longer have the strongest overall car this season.
Max missed out on pole by just 0.02 seconds and it took just four laps for him to take the race lead, but was never able to pull a safe gap from those behind. Lando Norris was able to cut the gap from 7 to 2.5 seconds but ultimately ran out of laps to challenge for the win.
The result extends Max’s points lead to 69, he may need this if the likes of McLaren and Mercedes make any further inroad in development this season.
Mercedes:
Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying: 3rd | Race: 3rd
George Russell – Qualifying: 4th | Race: 4th
If there is one track that Mercedes has done well at during this ground-effect era of the regulations, it’s at Barcelona. This year was no different.
Though neither driver could secure pole unlike in Canada, they were both in contention all the way through Qualifying and the second row provided a great opportunity to secure a victory on Sunday.
It started off brilliantly as Geroge Russell swooped around the outside of Verstappen and Norris to take the lead, though he relinquished this on lap four. But the teammates didn’t let Max nor Lando escape down the road.
Holding P2 and P4 in the opening phases, George pitted first with Lewis following, therefore having to fight through some Alpines and Ferraris to get back to the front, with Lewis coming out on top as a late second stop meant he was able to bolt on some soft tyres.
A second consecutive P3 & P4 finish which is another strong result, especially when compared to their results in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. You get the feeling with this progression the top step of the podium is in sight.
Alpine:
Pierre Gasly – Qualifying: 7th | Race: 9th
Esteban Ocon – Qualifying: 8th (promoted from 9th) | Race: 10th
Safe to say the announcement of Flavio Briatore as an advisor to the team ahead of the weekend raised some eyebrows in the paddock, the former Team Principal at the Enstone squad was once banned from the sport for life for the infamous Crashgate saga from 2008-2009.
Yet on track, Alpine continued their upward trajectory as they took a second consecutive double-points finish, though with both cars getting into Q3 this was their best result of the season.
Pierre particularly shined, ending up less than two-tenths off of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Qualifying and beating one of the Red Bulls. With no issues for the four main teams ahead of them, P9 and P10 is the best they can hope for at present.
It’s hard to tell where Alpine lie in the midfield battle as the pendulum swings between them, Aston Martin and VCARB, but if they continue picking off these odd points finishes bigger prizes await for them if the teams ahead run into trouble in the race.
Honourable mention goes to Lando Norris, he took his second pole position of his F1 career at this round, however a sluggish start to the race meant he was playing catch up all race. Still, P2 is a very good result but he left Barcelona disappointed not to score better.
The struggle bus:
Williams:
Alexander Albon – Qualifying: Pit Lane (demoted from 19th) | Result: 18th
Logan Sargeant – Qualifying: 20th (started 19th) | Result: 20th
Having scored points in Monaco and challenged for them in Montreal, it was back down to earth with a thud for Williams as both drivers ended up slowest in Q1. Albon had new power unit elements fitted which enforced s pit lane start whilst Logan picked up a three-place grid penalty for impeding.
Sunday’s race didn’t get much better as the American was lapped twice and Albon had a strange expedition through the gravel at turn 4 which led to a heated exchange with his engineer on the team radio.
With Alpine scoring some handy points, they fell even further behind in the fight for P8 in the standings.
VCARB:
Daniel Ricciardo – Qualifying: 18th | Race: 15th
Yuki Tsunoda – Qualifying: 17th | Race: 19th
If the sister team’s development was showing signs of slowing, they dropped the anchors at VCARB judging on their Barcelona showing. From points finishers in Montreal to the team’s first double-Q1 elimination of the season.
It’s perplexing to see how the car looked so poor in Spain having been a regular points scorer all season, and there were very few positives to take from Sunday’s race as they made little progress up the field. I guess sitting still comfortably in P6 in the Team’s Standings will be a crumb of comfort.
Sergio Pérez – Qualifying: 11th (demoted from 8th) | Race: 8th
Not for the first time this season has the Mexican found himself on the struggle bus, but at least he brought home some points on this occasion.
Carrying a penalty from Canada, a strong qualifying would have helped to nullify this and whilst he made it to Q3 for the first time since Imola, Checo only posted a time good enough for the fourth row before being used as a tow for Max’s second run.
Starting 11th, Pérez found himself battling Haas and Alpines on his way to P8, nearly a minute behind his teammate. Just eight points scored in the last four races leaves the team’s grip on the Constructor’s Title in the balance with Sergio himself dropping to P5 in the Driver’s standings.
A dishonourable mention goes to Oscar Piastri, this was his weakest round of the season as a costly error in Q3 meant he started P9. He was only able to make progress past the two Alpines to finish P7, over half a minute behind teammate Lando.
Up next is the Austrian Grand Prix which forms the second part of this European triple header. This will also mark the third Sprint round of the season, hopefully, this year the event isn’t marred by track limits like 2023. Tune in to the Sprint at 11 am UK time on Saturday 29th June and 2 pm for the race on Sunday 30th June.
