Spanish GP: From Snoozefest to What on Earth

This year’s edition of F1 Circuit de Barcelona was always going to be an extension of McLaren’s dominance. Right from Final Practice 1, the question was always, which McLaren comes out on top? An additional question was, what did Max Verstappen have to do about this? The Ferraris were on their own in the midfield, Mercedes have been unpredictable since 2022 so I have nothing to say about that.

Saturday

On qualification, it was clear, this two-horse race was going to go down the wire. Q3 comprised of the usual teams; 2 McLarens, 2 Ferraris, One Redbull, 2 Mercs, and Hadjar, who has been excellent this season, so excellent that there are talks of him taking over that dreaded RB second seat, that’s looking like career suicide.

Back to Q3. Lando drew first blood, taking provisional pole by 0.017s from his teammate, that’s how lose this battle was. Lando tried stealing a slip-stream from his teammate but Piastri moved away from the racing line immediately after crossing the finish line and remarked, “cheeky.” Alonso had a decent first lap, putting him P5 before being pushed back down to 10^th after the second round of laps. Speaking of which…

Norris went first, had an awful middle sector, while Piastri set the fastest sector in sector 2, it was obvious Oscar was getting pole, and he did. A McLaren front-row lockout, behind them was Max and George, then Ham, Ant, Lec, Gas, Had, finally Alonso. Pole lap of 1.11.546.

Sunday

Most cars started on softs, it looked like all the teams were planning on a 2-stop race. Off the line, Oscar took off well, with no threat from his teammate, who had a bad start, losing to Max. George lost a few positions too(to both the Ferraris). Not much action after that, except maybe Lando getting past Max and Lewis getting team orders to let Leclerc through on Lap 10. Albon had a horror of a race, 3 pitstops before retiring the car on Lap 30. A few pitstops later, it was lap 48, Max pitted for new softs, the goal was to catch Lando, and he did, was in DRS range by lap 52.

Turning Point: Kimi has a date with the gravel

In lap 55, Kimi Antonelli went off and was beached in the gravel, full safety car. It was time to pit, almost everyone pitted for new softs, except Max, who was out of available tires, only had hards available to him, they put him on that. Max was livid, he knew they were going to get on the restart, behind him were Leclerc and Russell, both on scrubbed softs. This wasn’t going to be a contest. Oscar had to survive the restart from his teammate, both on new soft tires. The safety car ended on lap 61, Piastri didn’t waste time to restart and caught Lando offguard. They streamed along the start-finish line, Oscar already clear of DRS, followed by Norris, then here goes the kicker. Charles was already slip-streaming Max before Max had a big snap along the straight, the car was almost facing sideways, Charles went through, George didn’t need a second invitation to try and pounce on turn 1. He tried to cut inside, practically pushing Max off the track, by the rules, Max was entitled to that corner because he was still ahead. Then the radio wars started, first it was Max thinking Charles hit him from behind, Charles wasn’t even close, then it was George asking for the place back, it wasn’t his to give back, then team orders told Max to give the place to George, Max refused but eventually slowed down to let George through, then he slammed his car into George as he went through. Pure carnage! Then the race ended, Oscar taking the flag for his fifth win, Lando in P2, Leclerc closing out the podium spots. Max was handed a 10s penalty for causing a collision, demoting him to P10.

Hamilton had a howler after the safety car, getting passed by Hulkenberg, who finished fifth. Turns out Ham had damage to his floor.

My Take

• Yuki had the average Redbull second seat experience, awful race for him.

• Hadjar has been the best performing rookie by a country mile, I hope he gets a bigger seat very soon, top driver.

• Hamilton has been below average for far too long now, he should retire, should’ve retired after 2022. (I’m a Hamilton fan)

• Max was not supposed to give the place back, should’ve let the stewards decide. However, ramming into another driver at the corner counts as attempted murder, 3 penalty points is not enough punishment for him.

• Norris needs to play dirty in order to stand a chance against his clearly more talented teammate.