The career of Spanish GP 2024 promised a lot after a qualifying in which Lando Norris surprised Max Verstappen with a spin that gave him pole position, but after a war from a distance for 66 laps, The Dutch driver achieved his seventh victory of the course.
At the start, George Russell caught Max Verstappen and Lando Norris by surprise with a late grenade on the outside of Turn 1 and took the lead of the race, although that first position would not last long, since once the DRS was activated , the Dutchman overtook him and began to open space.
At the time of the first pit stops, Norris opted to extend his stop to try a different strategy to Verstappen’s, but he had to come back on track to return to second position and lost a lot of time, as the Dutchman gained an advantage of more than almost 10s.
The McLaren man managed to cut a large part of that disadvantage before the second stop, but the play was repeated and after changing tires, Norris again had to push as hard as possible to try to catch up with Verstappen and fight for the victory, but finally he could not. and finished second at 2.2s.
In the fight for the podiumRussell, Hamilton, Sainz and Leclerc opted for a wide variety of strategies, all involving two stops, but at different times, although the Mercedes gave the impression of being the fastest for most of the race.
In the final laps, those team positions were confirmed and Hamilton and Leclerc, who were wearing the soft ones, overtook Russell and Sainz, who were wearing the hard ones. Thus, The seven-time champion climbed to third position on the podiumwith his teammate fourth, Leclerc fifth and Sainz sixth.
Behind, Oscar Piastri managed to carry out a “simple” comeback to finish seventh, while the battle between the Alpine and Sergio Pérez was won by the Mexican, who crossed the checkered flag in eighth position ahead of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon .
Fernando Alonso was off the pace throughout the race and finished 12th and doubled, almost 20 seconds from the points zone, with his teammate, Lance Stroll, 14th, more than 15 seconds behind him.
F1 2024 Spanish GP race results in Barcelona
F1 2024 Spanish GP race summary
Russell’s great exit thwarted by Verstappen
With all the drivers starting with soft tires, with the exception of Alexander Albon, who did so with medium and from the pitlane after receiving a penalty for changing an engine, the start of the 2024 Spanish GP did not leave anyone indifferent, especially due to the great departure of George Russell, who from fourth position rose to the lead of the race with a late braking that surprised Verstappen and Norris.
However, as soon as the DRS was activated, the Dutchman from Red Bull took the lead after a great overtake in Turn 1. Behind, Hamilton fell to fourth place, with the Ferraris behind after Sainz overtook his partner Leclerc. Alonso had to go off the line in Turn 1 and dropped several positions to 12th position, behind Checo Pérez.
Already on lap 5 of 66, Verstappen managed to get Russell out of his DRS and in turn the Mercedes driver had to defend himself from the attacks of Norris and his teammate Hamilton, who did have DRS from behind.
Alonso, for his part, seemed not to find the rhythm and lost two more positions with Bottas and Stroll, something that made him fall to 14th position, further and further away from the points zone.
Before reaching the tenth lap of the race, the race entered a relaxation phase where no one could attack and overtake anyone, either because of the DRS trains or because of the few overtaking opportunities that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya offers for this cars.
The first pit stops and division of strategies begin
Before lap 15 of 66, the rear and middle drivers began stopping in the pits to take off their softs and put on mediums. Sergio Pérez, who was on the verge of scoring points and despite having DRS, could not overtake a Haas, was one of those who was forced to make his stop, but they put in another set of soft tires to try a different strategy that would give more options.
On lap 16, Russell and Sainz were the first drivers in the front zone to stop and install new means, but Mercedes failed to stop and that made them lose the opportunity to undercut Verstappen, who stopped on the lap. 18 and with a 1.9s stop he left 5s ahead.
The McLarens and Leclerc opted to lengthen their stops and follow a different strategy from those of their rivals, with the aim of trying to complicate things for Verstappen. In turn, Hamilton overtook Sainz in Turn 1, including a touch, and reestablished the order of the Mercedes ahead of Ferrari.
Alonso was also one of the last to stop and took to the track 16th, behind Magnussen, but with less worn means than the rest of his rivals who were fighting to try to reach the points zone.
Norris finally extended his stop until lap 24, but came out sixth behind Sainz, although with a notable difference in pace. For his part, Leclerc inherited the lead and was the last to stop a lap later to drop to sixth and seventh place. After the stops, Pérez, who was wearing his second set of soft tires, was already in the points zone, ninth.
Racing from a distance and also melee
With the much newer tires, Norris gradually overtook his rivals until he reached the tail of the two Mercedes, who were fighting among themselves for the second position on the podium. Behind, Pérez fell victim to Piastri and the Red Bull driver moved to tenth with the McLaren driver ninth, before also overtaking the two Alpines and placing seventh.
On lap 32 of 66, Norris was finally able to overtake Hamilton after several failed attempts, while on lap 35 he did the same with Russell to place second after a great battle on the track, although that caused him to lose a lot of time and he was already behind. 9.4s from Verstappen, who was the leader with relative calm.
Stroll and Alonso were riding together with very similar paces in 12th and 13th position, dreaming of some unexpected event that could change the race and put them in the fight for the top 10.
The second and last stops leave excitement until the end
Sergio Pérez opened the season for second stops to secure a points position, but it wasn’t until lap 37 when Russell and Sainz began to move things along the front of the grid, both setting up a new set of hard and fast cars. get to the end of the race.
Norris, for his part, continued to close the gap with Verstappen and on lap 41 the six-second barrier between them was lowered.
On lap 44, Hamilton made his second stop and surprised everyone by riding soft to attack Sainz and Russell in the fight for the last podium position.
One lap later, lap 45, Verstappen reacted to a Norris that continued to close the gap and entered the pits to install a new set of new soft tires. The British driver from McLaren entered the pits shortly after, on lap 48, but mounted a set of used soft tires and took to the track second, 8.1s behind the Dutchman but with tires that had exactly the same turns.
Alonso was one of the last to stop as well and rode new tires, but he started 13th, still to be disputed.
On lap 50 of 66, Pérez made a new pit stop to ride soft and overtake the two Alpines and get seventh place. In turn, on lap 52, Hamilton, who was wearing soft ones, overtook Russell (hard ones) in turn 1 to climb to the third step of the podium. Shortly after, Leclerc did exactly the same to Sainz to place fifth, with the Spaniard sixth.
With 10 laps to go before the checkered flag, Norris reduced the difference between him and Verstappen to below 5 seconds, but it was increasingly difficult for him to close that disadvantage.
In the last laps, all eyes were focused on the difference between the first two, but it was the Dutchman from Red Bull who crossed the checkered flag as the winner of the race, with 2.2s of distance from Norris, who finished settling for second place.
Who was the ‘Driver of the day’ of the 2024 F1 Spanish GP?
Despite not being able to take the victory, the bravery of Lando Norriswhich maintained some excitement until the final laps, was rewarded by the fans with the award for best driver of the day of the 2024 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.
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