Red Bull's Max Verstappen secured his fifth win of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain on Sunday. The Dutchman started on medium-compound tyres and managed to hold onto his pole position advantage despite a fierce attempt by Carlos Sainz to overtake him around the outside of Turn 1. From then on, he dominated the race, finishing 15 seconds ahead of second-placed Lewis Hamilton.
The start of the race was marred by a collision between Lando Norris and Hamilton at Turn 2, which forced Norris to pit for a new nose section. Lance Stroll took advantage of the incident to move into third place behind Verstappen and Sainz.
Hamilton quickly regained his composure and passed Stroll for third place on lap eight. Meanwhile, Russell steadily worked his way up through the field, overtaking cars one by one until he found himself in fifth place by lap 11.
Verstappen pitted on lap 27, switching his medium-compound tyres for hard-compound ones. Hamilton and Russell were happy to run longer on soft-compound tyres before making their own pit stops. Hamilton pitted nine laps later than Sainz, rejoining behind him but on much fresher medium-compound tyres.
Russell stopped a lap later than Hamilton and rejoined just ahead of Esteban Ocon's Alpine in fifth place. After starting in 11th place due to poor performance in Q2, Sergio Perez moved up through the field in the second Red Bull and was running in eighth place by lap 10.
With Hamilton closing in, Sainz pitted for medium-compound tyres on lap 16. The Mercedes duo were happy to run longer on softs before pitting. Hamilton passed Sainz for second place on lap 28 but was already 12 seconds behind Verstappen by then.
Russell overtook Stroll for fourth place just after half distance. Perez carved his way up to fifth place on his fresh hard-compound tyres but ran out of time to catch Russell.
Sainz made his second pit stop just before two-thirds distance on lap 42, switching to hard-compound tyres. Russell pitted for soft-compound tyres on lap 46, and Hamilton followed suit five laps later. Perez also stopped for softs, rejoining three seconds behind Sainz.
Verstappen comfortably stopped for soft-compound tyres for the run to the finish line despite getting a black and white flag for exceeding track limits on three occasions.
Alonso passed Ocon with 14 laps to go, although only just after the Frenchman made a late defensive move on the run to Turn 1. A lap later, Perez passed Sainz for fourth place and set off after the Mercedes cars.
In the end, Verstappen won the race with ease, finishing 15 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Russell took third place, while Perez finished fourth. Sainz finished fifth, ahead of the Astons of Stroll and Alonso. Ocon was eighth from Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), who received a five-second penalty for forcing a Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) car off track.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc started from the pit lane on hard-compound tyres after problems in qualifying forced him into a rear-end change. He went on an aggressive tyre strategy, switching to soft-compound tyres on lap 17 and back to hard-compound ones on lap 43. However, he could only manage an 11th-place finish, promoted one place by Tsunoda's penalty.
Verstappen now leads Perez by 53 points in the drivers' standings, with Alonso in third place. Red Bull's performance at the Spanish Grand Prix confirms their status as the team to beat this season, but Mercedes will be hoping to close the gap in the coming races.
🏁 #SpanishGP 🇪🇸 Full race results: pic.twitter.com/L8lYGmCNQ0
— Racing Union (@TheRacingUnion) June 4, 2023
