Everything, absolutely everything, has been swept away by Max Verstappen on his way through Barcelona like a cold drop. His Catalan weekend was simply perfect: dominating in all training sessions, author of the pole on Saturday, owner of an absolute head-to-head victory, insatiable looking for the extra point of the best lap of the race, and he’s gone he goes home with a further 14 points ahead of his pursuer; 53 already ahead of the lead… The Dutch champion is unstoppably shooting towards his triple championship from the Montmeló springboard.
What a review the prodigious blonde pilot made yesterday at the Circuit, who ended up yawning with 24 seconds ahead of his immediate pursuer, Lewis Hamilton, and who has turned victory into a routine: he has won five in seven races. And there is no ceiling or rival that can really stop him.
“A victory here is incredible”, exclaimed a Vestappen who continues his idyll with Barcelona, ​​the place where he achieved his first victory in F-1 during his debut at the wheel of a Red Bull, in that race in 2016, when Helmut Marko brought him up from Toro Rosso to replace Russian Daniil Kvyat. Then many exclaimed because this insolent 18-year-old boy, with a look reminiscent of the more arrogant Schumacher, passed in front of Carlos Sainz…
His two consecutive titles, the early records, his ambitious aggression and his insatiable voraciousness have proved the Red Bull managers right, who can boast of being champions for years. The 2023 crown already has the measures taken…
Because, as much as the arrival of the great circus in Barcelona is always expected as a turning point due to the improvements introduced by all the teams, the truth is that the Red Bulls continue in another orbit. Nothing has changed, no matter how many innovations they introduce: they are the fastest in a lap in classification and in race pace; totally unattainable. So in Montmeló Vestappen, after Sainz covered well from the pole at the start, the only moment of risk, an abyss of distance was soon built and he left the victory decided in the middle of the race. On lap 36/66 he accumulated 15 seconds on Lewis Hamilton and 26 on George Russell, the two Mercedes, the ones who have made the most progress among the greats, in front of Ferrari – what two passes to Sainz – and Aston Martin.
Finally, the rain that had disturbed the race did not appear in the sky of Montmeló – although it was very dark in Granollers -, and the excitement for the victory and for the podium places, in the hands of the Mercedes, was destroyed, the only grace that it was the fight for the extra point of the best lap. And to see if they ended up penalizing Max Verstappen…
The Dutchman was so tight when he opened the track – despite his substantial advantage – that he left the track three times and on lap 59, seven from the finish line, he received the track limits warning on the radio. Black and white warning flag. In the fourth he would add 5 seconds of penalty. His track engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, was upset. “Focus, Max”, he told him, to prevent him from ‘risking another off track’, when the Dutchman conjured himself up to go look for the extra point for the best lap. He marked her with five turns to go. Insatiable, the Dutchman.
Spanish disappointment in pairs
The disappointment of the Spanish Grand Prix came from the home drivers, in front of an effervescent stand with 125,565 fans who expected better results to celebrate from theirs: Carlos Sainz, who started second Рhis best starting position this season Р, finished fifth, clearly overtaken by Mercedes and Checo P̩rez, and Fernando Alonso, from eighth at the start, could only climb to seventh, his worst result this season after five podiums.
The performance of both was defensive. Sainz tried the adventure at the start looking for one outside the film on Verstappen, but the Dutchman closed well. The Madrid player remained second until he changed tires (v. 14), and with the averages he only had to decline. They happened to him like Russell, Hamilton and Pérez planes, better in tire management and in pace.
And Alonso, after winning a grid at the start and finishing sixth at the start, had to give way to Russell and “this changed our plans, we decided to slow down and stop”, admitted the Asturian, who with the change of tires fell back to 10th place and was able to recover at a good pace on the hard to seventh place, after moving ahead of Zhou, Tsunoda and Ocon. He reached the back of his partner Lance Stroll, and there he slowed down. A seventh and a fifth that had little taste for the Spanish fans.
