The intriguing and surprising Verstappen-Norris rivalry which has been brewing for several weeks continued on Sunday on the Barcelona-Catalonia circuit. And as in Montreal, Red Bull had the upper hand over McLaren.
Not so long ago, Lando Norris would have been happy with a second place. Not anymore, when he has in his hands a car capable of challenging that of the three-time defending champion.
Starting first, the Briton did not have a good start and found himself third behind George Russell and Max Verstappen. Gradually, he went back up the slope. Second at the end of the race, he tried everything in the last 10 laps. With 8.3 seconds behind the Dutchman, he pushed and pushed until he reduced the gap to 6 seconds, then 4, stringing together the fastest laps. To hell with tire conservation!
The McLaren finally crossed the finish line just 2 seconds behind the Red Bull. Behind them, a surprise: Lewis Hamilton, in a Mercedes which is having good times, achieved his first podium since last October, in Mexico.
“I should have won,” said a dissatisfied Norris at the F1 microphone, a few minutes after getting out of his car. “I had a bad start. The car was incredible today, definitely the fastest. I just lost the race at the start, so I’m disappointed. »
For Verstappen, it is a second consecutive victory and a seventh this season. However, the champion has not had it so easy lately. Again on Sunday, he had to adopt an “aggressive” strategy. On the third lap, he overtook George Russell, who had brilliantly outpaced everyone at the start. He then managed his tires perfectly to stay in front and race to victory.
“It was close at the end, but I’m very happy to win here,” he said.
With Oscar Piastri’s 7th place and Sergio Pérez’s disappointing 8th place, Red Bull ends the weekend with four points more than McLaren.
There was something refreshing about seeing Hamilton and Verstappen side by side on the podium.
Things are going well for Mercedes recently. After Russell’s third place in Montreal, the seven-time world champion is responsible for offering the Silver Arrows another podium.
Russell, who had started well by overtaking Norris and Verstappen at the start, took 4th place. Total points for Mercedes this weekend: 27. Slowly, but surely, the team is trying to climb back up towards the top 3 manufacturers.
“A bit like Lando, I had a really bad start and obviously lost ground to the Ferraris. It’s been a battle to get back to where I am. With a better start we might have been able to follow the guys ahead. »
The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr finished in 5th and 6th place respectively. The Scuderia therefore had a much better weekend than in Montreal, but a worse one than the Mercedes.
In this race where two stops are necessary, we suspected that we would be entitled to action. This action materialized in the form of superb overtaking, while no driver made a major error forcing them to retire.
In terms of surprises: Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished in 9th and 10th place, collecting three points as they did in Canada. Good sign for Alpine, which had an atrocious start to the season.
What about disappointments? No points for Aston Martin, for the second time in three races. Starting 10th, Fernando Alonso could not do better than 12th place. As for Lance Stroll, he finished where he started, in 14th place.