Lewis Hamilton drove aggressively and overtook rivals, sometimes with apparent ease. George Russell gained several places by pitting at the start and deflecting a late challenge from Sergio Perez. It was a great day for Mercedes.
And they finished 2-3.
Once again, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen raced away from the Formula 1 field at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on Sunday, winning pole and then never holding a position other than first on race day. His final margin was over 20 seconds.
With five wins in seven races (and two seconds) he is on his way to his third Formula 1 title in a row, barring a major shock.
Any drama had to be found further back in a race with no major incidents or crashes. Adding to the Mercedes’ showy performance, Verstappen’s teammate Perez raced to fourth after starting eleventh thanks to a poor qualifying.
The expected rain, which might have mixed things up a bit, never actually came.
Late in the race, Verstappen was warned about straying off the track in some corners, but even if he had been penalized it would very likely have been five seconds, nowhere near enough to take the race away.
As they have done for weeks, his rivals and their teams will be shaking their heads wondering how to stop him.
Race preview
Red Bull recorded six wins in six races to kick off the Formula 1 season, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that the talk turned to the elephant in the room at this week’s Spanish Grand Prix:
Can Red Bull become the first Formula 1 team to win every race in a season?
“I think we can, but it’s very unlikely,” said driver Max Verstappen on Thursday, trying to be diplomatic in a season in which he has been dominant. “You know, there are always things that go wrong, whether you have, you know, a pension or whatever. But purely on pace, I think at the moment, that’s what it looks like.”
No Formula 1 team has won every race in a single year, although McLaren came closest in 1988, when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won a combined 15 of 16 starts. Verstappen (four wins) and Sergio Pérez (two) have Red Bull at six for six this year. Predictions that they could run the table, particularly that of Mercedes’ George Russell, who said in March that “Red Bull has sewn up this championship”, have so far come true.
In fact, Verstappen was so fast in his first qualifying round on Saturday that his team called him in instead of trying to beat him. The other teams, Red Bull signaled, were once again racing for second place.
How to watch
Time: The Spanish Grand Prix starts at 9 a.m. Eastern time. (Worldwide start times are here.)
TV: The race will air on ESPN in the United States, starting at 7:30am, and will be streamed on ESPN+ Eastern. Not in the United States? A complete list of Formula 1 channels wherever you are can be found here.
Sunday starting grid
Verstappen is in pole position. He will be joined at the front by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Lando Norris was third in a McLaren.
Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, who is second in the season standings, will start eleventh some slipping and sliding on Saturday, and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso will be just ahead of him in eighth. (The full points standings are below.) Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who grumbled “incredibly” as he exited qualifying, is a frustrating 19th.
Sunday’s storylines
Changes Seven teams are rolling out tech upgrades, so that could shake up the order quite a bit on Sunday. (Qualifying, which put some unusual names in the top 10, should have been an indication that no one really knows what to expect.) A few teams tested their upgrade packs on the narrow streets of Monaco, an unusually cramped circuit that has an imperfect laboratory is for that kind of thing. Sunday’s stage, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunyawill provide a much more truthful test, and teams are looking forward to it.
Home court advantage Spanish fans have turned out in their tens of thousands to cheer on their compatriots Sainz, of Ferrari, and Alonso of Aston Martin. But unless those fans have some advice on how Sainz and Alonso can take the second round they are currently handing over to Red Bull, home field advantage may not count for much.
Sneak peak? Monaco’s narrow streets offered a rare treat for teams last weekend: a peek under other teams’ equipment. That view, called the floor of a car, is generally a well-kept secret in Formula 1, as it can have unique aerodynamic properties that give a team an edge over its rivals. It’s also why teams never like to see cranes lift their cars into the air, as they did after several crashes in Monaco. “Thanks to Sergio Perez, all of F1 has seen the legendary Red Bull floor,” said Sky Sports commentator Ted Kravitz. said after the game. “It’s something wonderful and beautiful, especially when you compare it to the floors of Mercedes and Ferrari, which we also saw on cranes.”
qualification 101
The first rule for qualifying should be: don’t hit your teammate.
Last timeout
Verstappen led from wire to wire in Monaco to take his fourth victory in six races. He was never challenged and won by almost 30 seconds.
Drivers’ Championship Standings
Pérez’s struggles at the back of the field in Monaco allowed Verstappen to extend his lead over his Red Bull teammate to 39 points. It’s the more gaping gap opening behind them – 51 points to Alonso in third, 75 to Hamilton in fourth, nearly 100 to Russell in fifth – that should be of concern to other teams: