Max Verstappen cruised to victory at the Spanish Grand in his alien space rocket otherwise known as the Red Bull RB19. To underscore his superiority, Verstappen trounced even his teammate throughout the weekend. In F1, teammates are often used as a benchmark to gauge who is the better driver. Sergio Perez did his best to look 4th best, which is where he ended the race after a consecutive error-prone Grand Prix weekend left him starting 11th on the grid. Ferrari put in their trademark single-lap performance to secure P2 in qualifying courtesy of Carlos Sainz, but the car’s race pace told a different story.
Sainz eventually finished the race 5th, teammate Leclerc had a mysterious qualifying ending up at the back of the grid and did not have the race pace to finish any higher than 11th. The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Russell finished 2nd and 3rd respectively showing promising gains after drastically changing development direction with the introduction of significant upgrades.
Despite their efforts, Mercedes still has room for improvement in fully optimizing their B-spec car. This was evident as Lewis Hamilton finished the race 24 seconds behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. On the other hand, Aston Martin seems to have encountered a development hurdle, as Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso could only manage 6th and 7th place finishes respectively.
The 2023 Spanish Grand Prix had plenty of overtaking up and down the field but the action was spread out with long periods of one car following in the wake of another. It wasn’t a classic Grand Prix, it had some moments but all in all, it was yet another Red Bull demonstration run, at least in the hands of Max Verstappen.
2023 Spanish Grand Prix Results:
1 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing 1:27:57.940
2 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +24.090
3 George RUSSELL Mercedes +32.389
4 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +35.812
5 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +45.698
6 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +63.320
7 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +64.127
8 Esteban OCON Alpine +69.242
9 Guanyu ZHOU Alfa Romeo +71.878
10 Pierre GASLY Alpine +73.530
11 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +74.419
12 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +75.416
13 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +1 lap
14 Nyck DE VRIES AlphaTauri +1 lap
15 Nico HULKENBERG Haas F1 Team +1 lap
16 Alexander ALBON Williams +1 lap
17 Lando NORRIS McLaren +1 lap
18 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas F1 Team +1 lap
19 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +1 lap
20 Logan SARGEANT Williams +1 lap
