Verstappen Dominates 2023 Spanish Grand Prix

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated 2023 Spanish Grand Prix to extend his title lead over Sergio Perez.

Verstappen made a clean start from pole and never relinquished his lead as he dominated the race from lights to flag unchallenged, despite getting a warning for track limits.

Lewis Hamilton survived an early-race scrap with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll to finish second ahead of Mercedes teammate, George Russell who drove from 12th on the grid to finish third ahead of Perez and Carlos Sainz.

Stroll meanwhile finished sixth in front of his teammate and home hero, Fernando Alonso as Esteban Ocon, Guanyu Zhou and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten.

In the drivers’ standings, Verstappen extended his title lead over Perez to 53 points whilst Alonso remained third in the standings, albeit now just 12 points ahead of Hamilton.

Red Bull meanwhile continue to lead the constructors’ battle with 287 points but their nearest competitor is now Mercedes, who are 135 points behind in second place after overtaking Aston Martin who dropped to third.

At lights out amidst lingering showers surrounding Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Verstappen made a clean start ahead of Sainz as Hamilton leapfrogged Lando Norris into third.

Sainz however slowed through Turn 2 to avoid hitting Verstappen which caused Norris to clip Hamilton’s left-rear tyre, in-turn ruining Norris’ race as he pitted for a new front wing at the end of Lap 1.

Hamilton meanwhile was passed for third by Stroll who hung it round the outside of Turn 4 which gave him track position into Turn 5, although Hamilton recovered third on Lap 8 with a move into Turn 1.

Further back, Russell cut the first two corners to avoid a melee and rejoined seventh from which he steadily worked his way up to fifth by Lap 11, before he benefitted from early pit stops for Stroll and Sainz to progress into third on Lap 16.

Hamilton and Russell thereafter managed their opening soft tyre stint longer than many drivers and eventually pitted on Laps 25 and 26 respectively for medium tyres, which dropped them behind Sainz.

Sainz’s pace on his medium tyres however was slower than Hamilton who was able to make a move into Turn 1 on Lap 28 for second, as Perez finally stopped on that very lap after working his way up from 11th on the grid to second in his opening stint.

The threat of rain failed to materialise despite Russell reporting rain at Turn 5 on Lap 28, only to later realise that the wet weather was simply his own sweat inside the cockpit as he then overtook Sainz for third on Lap 35.

Amongst the frontrunners, Sainz was the first to make his second stop on Lap 42 but failed to mount much of a challenge, as Russell leapfrogged him in his own stop for soft tyres on Lap 46 whilst Hamilton and Perez both pitted on Lap 52 from second and third respectively.

Perez though slipped behind Russell and Sainz during his stop – whilst Hamilton kept second, but the Mexican recovered fourth a lap later with a move on Sainz into Turn 1 but was around nine seconds behind Russell with 13 laps left of the race.

Up at the front, Verstappen pitted on Lap 53 for soft tyres and kept a comfortable lead ahead of Hamilton which he maintained until the checkered flag.

Perez mounted a late charge but couldn’t catch Russell who took third ahead of the Mexican as Sainz, Stroll, Alonso, Ocon, Tsunoda and Zhou rounded out the top ten on the road, but Tsunoda received a five-second time penalty for forcing Zhou wide at Turn 1 and dropped to 12th in the classification.

Gasly ultimately benefitted from Tsunoda’s time penalty to take the final point in tenth position ahead of Leclerc, who had started the race from the pit lane following a suspension set-up change overnight but could only recover to finish 11th.

F1 now heads to Montreal, Canada for the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix across weekend of 16-18 June.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	66	1h 27m 57.940
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	66	+ 24.090
3	George Russell	Mercedes	66	+ 32.389
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	66	+ 35.812
5	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	66	+ 45.698
6	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	66	+ 63.320
7	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	66	+ 64.127
8	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	66	+ 69.242
9	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	66	+ 71.878
10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	66	+ 73.530
11	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	66	+ 74.419
12	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	66	+ 75.416
13	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	65	+ 1 Lap
14	Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri	65	+ 1 Lap
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	65	+ 1 Lap
16	Alex Albon	Williams	65	+ 1 Lap
17	Lando Norris	McLaren	65	+ 1 Lap
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	65	+ 1 Lap
19	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	65	+ 1 Lap
20	Logan Sargeant	Williams	65	+ 1 Lap