@Max33Verstappen storms to dominant #SpanishGP victory. #F1
Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing - Honda-RBPT, RB19, celebrating after taking his 40th-career victory at the Formula 1 AWS Spanish Grand Prix 2023, Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalonia, Montmelo, Spain. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Verstappen Spanish GP Victory, 2023 Spanish GP Results, 2023 Spanish GP, F1 Spanish GP Results, Formula 1 Spain Results. 2023 Canadian GP Preview, F1 Canadian GP Preview. 2024 Spanish GP Preview, F1 Spanish GP Preview, Spanish Grand Prix Preview.
Verstappen Spanish GP Victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant victory at the Spanish GP by over 24 seconds to Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton who came home second as George Russell completed the top three in the F1 W14 entry.
Verstappen led from start-to-finish and increased his World Driver’s Championship lead to 57 points over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez and made it the 40th victory of his career.
When the 66-lap Spanish GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen made a solid getaway but with Sainz tucked right behind the Red Bull in the slipstream, and move to the outside, but Verstappen covered the inside and held first place.
Behind them Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton made contact with McLaren’s Lando Norris as the latter suffered a damaged front wing.
At the end of the opening lap, Verstappen held a one second gap to Sainz with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll third, Mercedes’ Hamilton fourth and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon completed the top five.
Norris came in for a new front wing and put on a set of medium tyres as a result of the contact with the Mercedes.
On lap six, Verstappen is building a lead over Sainz despite starting on the mediums, with a 2.649 second gap to the Ferrari, Stroll holding third, Hamilton fourth and Ocon rounding out the top five.
On the eighth tour, Hamilton passes Stroll for third down the main straight into the opening corner.
At the beginning of lap 10, Verstappen increased his gap to 4.7 seconds over Sainz with Hamilton third, Stroll fourth and Ocon completing the top five.
Meanwhile the other Red Bull RB19 entry of Sergio Perez, who started in 11th, on his recovery drive made his way up to eighth and behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in the battle for seventh.
In-front of them, Mercedes’ George Russell made his way by Ocon on the main straight to take fifth place off the Alpine.
On lap 15, Verstappen held a comfortable 7.444 lead to Sainz. Behind the Dutchman, in the battle for second place, Hamilton got within DRS range to the Spaniard, Russell in the second Silver Arrow was fourth and Alonso completed the top five.
Sainz pitted from third on lap 16 and emerged in ninth on a fresh set of mediums behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc who began the Grand Prix from the pit-lane and started on the harder compounds.
On lap 19, Sainz overtook Alpine’s Pierre Gasly to take sixth place on the main straight.
On the 20th tour, Verstappen increased his lead to a 8.504 second gap over Hamilton with Russell third, Perez fourth and Sainz fifth meanwhile Alonso pitted for a set of softs and came out in tenth behind Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
On lap 24, the top four are still yet to pit, with Verstappen leading the way, 11.058 seconds in-front of Hamilton, with Russell third, Perez fourth and Sainz rounding out the top five. Both Red Bulls on the mediums whilst the Silver Arrows are on the softs.
On the 25th tour, Hamilton pitted from second for a set of mediums and emerged behind Ferrari’s Sainz in fifth place.
A tour later, Russell also stopped from second place for a set of mediums and came out in sixth behind Aston Martin’s Stroll.
On lap 27, Verstappen pitted from the lead for a fresh set of harder compounds and emerged comfortably ahead of team-mate Perez.
On the 28th lap, Perez followed his team-mate pitting for a set of hards and came out in eighth, meanwhile Hamilton made his way by Ferrari’s Sainz on the inside into turn one to take second place and behind them Stroll overtook Ocon for fifth place.
On lap 30, Verstappen held a 12.647 lead over Hamilton with Sainz third, Russell fourth, Stroll fifth and Ocon completing the top six.
At the midway point Verstappen increased his gap to 13.706 ahead of Hamilton with Sainz holding third, Russell fourth, Stroll fifth and Ocon sixth as behind them Perez passed AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda for seventh.
On the 34th tour, Perez also made late lunge on the Alpine on the pit straight with DRS assistance to move ahead of Ocon into sixth place.
On the 35th lap, Russell with DRS assistance, got into the slipstream of Sainz on the main straight, taking the inside and passing the Ferrari into turn one to snatch third place.
On lap 40, Verstappen held a 15.634 second lead over Hamilton, with Russell third, Sainz fourth and Perez rounding out the top five.
On the 42nd tour, Sainz stopped for a set of hards and emerged behind Alonso in sixth place meanwhile Leclerc followed suit from eighth and emerged in 14th behind Gasly.
With 20 laps remaining Alonso pitted from sixth on a set of hards and emerged in tenth behind Zhou, meanwhile, Russell also stopped for a set of softs and came out in fourth behind Perez and well clear of fifth-placed Sainz.
On lap 51, Hamilton pitted for a scrub set of softs with Perez doing likewise behind also for a fresh set of the C3 red side-walled rubber and came out in fifth behind Sainz
On the 53rd lap, Verstappen stopped for a set of the C3 softs and comfortably 16.682 seconds in-front of second-placed Hamilton whilst his Red Bull team-mate overtook Sainz with DRS assistance on the main-straight on the inside of the Ferrari into turn one to take fourth place.
With ten tours remaining, Verstappen was 16.590 seconds clear of Hamilton, with Russell third and Perez fourth and chasing the Mercedes for the final podium place and Sainz completed the top five runners.
On lap 59, race leader Verstappen was given a black and white flag for exceeding track limits at turn 10 whilst his team-mate Perez has brought down the gap to Russell to 5.664 seconds in the battle for third place.
Verstappen crossed the line by 24.090 seconds to claim the Spanish GP victory with Hamilton taking second and Russell rounding out the top three.
Perez had to settle for fourth and ahead of Sainz who was fifth and the Aston Martin duo of Stroll and Alonso who followed in sixth and seventh respectively.
Alpine F1 Team’s Ocon and Gasly ended the Grand Prix in eighth and tenth as Alfa Romeo’s Zhou split the pairing in ninth.
Ferrari’s Leclerc recovered from his pit-lane start following a dismal qualifying to finish the race outside the top ten in 11th place and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda who took 12th and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who came home 13th.
AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries placed 14th in the classification and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg who was 15th and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who finished 16th.
McLaren’s Norris after the highs of qualifying, ended the Grand Prix in a low-17th after his opening lap tangle with Hamilton and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who took 18th and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant who brought up the rear.
2023 Spanish GP – The Top Three
2023 Spanish GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19:
“It’s a big pleasure to drive with a car like this. A win here, it’s incredible. A strong weekend from myself, from the team. Hopefully we can keep this up.”
2nd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W14, +24.090:
“What an awesome crowd we have here. And what a result for our team, I just want to take my hat off to my team back at the factory, for continuing to push. The Bulls are still a bit ahead, but we’ll keep chasing them down. They are still too quick at the moment, but one step at a time.”
3rd Place – George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W14, +32.389:
“A little bit surprised, kudos for the team for giving me a good car today. P12, all the way to P3, a sign of things to come. Really pleased I’m on the podium.”
Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio De Espana 2023 Race Results Classification (66 Laps)
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 66 | 1:27:57.940 | 26 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 66 | +24.090s | 18 |
| 3 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 66 | +32.389s | 15 |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 66 | +35.812s | 12 |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 66 | +45.698s | 10 |
| 6 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 66 | +63.320s | 8 |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 66 | +64.127s | 6 |
| 8 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 66 | +69.242s | 4 |
| 9 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 66 | +71.878s | 2 |
| 10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | 66 | +73.530s | 1 |
| 11 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 66 | +74.419s | 0 |
| 12 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 66 | +75.416s | 0 |
| 13 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 65 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 14 | 21 | Nyck De Vries | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 65 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 15 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | 65 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 16 | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 65 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 17 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 65 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 18 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 65 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 19 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 65 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 20 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 65 | +1 lap | 0 |
* Provisional results. Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1211/spain/race-result.html
Round nine of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Prix Du Canada 2023 from Friday June 16-Sunday June 18.
#SpanishGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen storms to 24th-career pole. #F1
#SpanishGP FP2: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @alo_oficial. #F1
#SpanishGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen leads @RedBullRacing one-two. #F1
