Max Verstappen eased to a dominant victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with the Mercedes duo completing the podium and his teammate Sergio Perez on a recovery drive from 11th to 4th.
This weekend the Formula 1 circus travelled to Spain, to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the 8th round of its 2023 campaign.
Max Verstappen on pole got away decently with Carlos Sainz on his toes, it didn’t take long however for the Dutchman to pull away with a dominant lead. The two British drivers, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton who started third and fourth respectively, made contact causing Lando Norris to make his way into the pits, tumbling down to last place.
This has been Lando’s first top-three start this season and a nightmare of a first lap that dictated the rest of his Sunday. A promising weekend for McLaren ended with zero points with Norris in 17th and Oscar Piastri in 13th.
Max Verstappen was in a race of his own, crossing the finish line over twenty seconds before second-place finisher, Lewis Hamilton. Today’s Grand Slam was Verstappen’s fifth win of the season, extending the lead in the driver’s championship to 53 points over his RedBull teammate Sergio Perez.
But what was happening behind him was truly exciting to watch. The removal of the last chicane in sector three proved successful as the new track layout made overtaking easier.
Strategy battles between Hamilton’s Mercedes garage and Sainz’s Ferrari crew were the ones to watch in the first half of the race with Lewis Hamilton coming out victorious as he passed Sainz on lap 28 to take second place, equaling Mercedes’ best finish of the season so far. George Russell in the second Mercedes brought it home in 3rd to make it a double podium for the outfit from Brackley.
Sainz was unable to keep up the pace with his closest rivals this weekend, finishing the Grand Prix in 5th. Fernando Alonso finished 7th with his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll separating the two Spaniards in 6th.
Esteban Ocon, Guanyu Zhou and Pierre Gasly finished the top 10 followed by Charles Leclerc in 11th after a recovery drive, starting from the pit lane.
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