© Getty Images2024 Spanish Grand Prix - Race ReportMax stays cool in Spanish sun to take the win
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“Lando and McLaren were very, very quick today,” said Max afterwards. “But I think we did everything well. We drove quite an aggressive strategy, and luckily it paid out till the end. It was quite close till the end, but very happy to win here.”
When the lights went out at the start, Max made a good start from the clean side of the track, but as he powered towards Turn 1, he was squeezed towards the edge of track by Norris, who had got away badly. The tussle between the two allowed fourth-place starter George Russell to surge around the outside of both drivers to take the lead in Turn 1.
Max reacted quickly and as Norris slipped to third, the Red Bull driver tucked in behind the Mercedes man, and after being told by GP that the activation of DRS was his best opportunity to seize the lead, the champion pounced. Armed with a tow into Turn 1, Max moved to the outside and swept past the Briton to take the lead.
“I had to do a bit of rallying on the straight. I had to go into the grass a bit, which lost me a bit of momentum,” said Max of the start. “But I was quite determined to try and get the lead and once I was in the lead, I could look after my tyres a bit better, and that definitely made my race.”
A Brilliant Battle© Getty Images
With the lead secured, Max began to carve out a small gap and as his opening stint in used Softs began to unfold, he worked his way to a 2.5s lead over Russell by lap 10.
Further back, Checo held his 11th place position at the start and then, after passing Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg, the Mexican made his first stop at the end of lap 13. He moved to a set of used Soft tyres and rejoined in P15, behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. However, as rivals around him made their stops, Checo climbed back to 10th over the following laps.
Russell was the first of the frontrunners to box at the end of lap 15, but the Mercedes driver’s switch to Mediums was slowed by a problem with the right rear wheel and he dropped to seventh place.
Max made his first stop, also for Mediums, on lap 18 and after a 1.9s halt he rejoined in fourth, behind Norris, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri who had yet to stop. With plenty of pace in hand over the slower soft tyre starters ahead, Max quickly reeled in Piastri and on lap 21, he powered past the McLaren to take P3, just over seven seconds behind Leclerc.
Norris, though, was still circling, trying to extend and eke out a tyre advantage over the Mercedes driver and Max. The McLaren driver eventually pitted at the end of lap 24 and, after moving to Medium tyres, he emerged in P6 behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Leclerc was the last of the leaders to pit and once all the frontrunners settled into their second stint, Max took the lead once more, almost six seconds clear of Russell, with Hamilton in third ahead of Sainz and Norris. The McLaren driver had fresh tyres, though, and on lap 27 he used DRS to roar past the Ferrari to take fourth place, nine seconds behind race leader, Max.
Norris’ next target was Hamilton and he powered past the Mercedes under DRS on lap 32. Ahead lay Russell and after a lap-long battle between the two on lap 35, Norris muscled his way past to claim P2, though he was still nine seconds behind Max, who was comfortably settled into P1.
Checo, meanwhile, had cycled through the pit lane again and, after taking on a set of Medium tyres, he dropped to P14, behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Once again, though, pit stops for rivals ahead meant he rose back up the order and as the counter ticked off 40 laps, he lay in ninth place, just 12 seconds behind Sainz, who had pitted for a second time.
At the front, with a six-lap tyre delta to the leader in his favour, Norris began to close in on Max, and as the race hit two thirds’ distance, the gap shrank to below five seconds.
The race leader made his second visit to the pit lane on lap 44 and, after a good 2.8s switch for new Soft tyres, Max rejoined in third place, behind Leclerc.
Busy Day For The Pit Crew© Getty Images
Norris, in the lead and in clear air, was told it was his chance to build a gap and over the following laps the McLaren driver pushed his advantage over Max to more than 17 seconds. The champion responded though and on lap 46 he pumped in a race fastest lap to stay in touch.
Norris made his final stop at the end of lap 47 and, in a 3.6s stop, he took on Soft tyres. As Max swept back into the lead, the McLaren driver just managed to stay ahead of the Mercedes cars to slot into second place, eight seconds behind race leader Max.
On lap 50, GP radioed through to Max to tell him that the McLaren driver was “pushing hard, not saving tyres, all corners”. Over the following two laps, the gap between the top two fell to 5.7 seconds and with 15 laps left, GP again got on the radio to tell the champion that he now needed to “push to the end”.
That was all the impetus the champion needed and with 10 laps remaining, Max began to pick up his pace and though the gap to Norris continued to ebb away, the rate of the fall slowed and after 66 laps, the champion crossed the line to take a controlled seventh win of the season, 2.2 seconds clear of Norris and with Hamilton a further 15 seconds back in third place.
Fourth place went to Russell, with Leclerc in fifth ahead of team-mate Sainz. Piastri took seventh in the second McLaren and after a see-sawing, three-stop race, Checo passed Pierre Gasly in the closing stages to take eighth place ahead of the Alpine driver and his team-mate Esteban Ocon.
Max’s seventh win of the season extends his title lead, with the champion now on 219 points, 69 clear of Norris. Checo is now fifth in the standings on 111 points, five behind Sainz and 37 behind third-placed Leclerc. In the Constructors’ battle the team now has 330 points, 60 ahead of Ferrari, while McLaren are third on 237.
Checo Making Moves© Getty Images
| Rank | Driver | Team | Gap | Points | | 1 | Max Verstappen | Oracle Red Bull Racing | - | 25 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +2.219 | 18 (+1) |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +17.790 | 15 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | +22.320 | 12 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +22.709 | 10 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +31.028 | 8 |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +33.706 | 6 |
| 8 | | Oracle Red Bull Racing | +59.524 | 4 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +62.025 | 2 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | +71.889 | 1 |
