Oracle Red Bull Racing

Race Changing Moments - Spanish Grand Prix 2023

Highlights from a dominant performance at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The

2023

Spanish

Grand

Prix

will

remembered

one

the

most

dominant

performances

Max

Verstappen’s

career,

with

the

champion

completing

Grand

Chelem.

From

the

moment

the

Team

arrived

the

Circuit

Barcelona-Catalunya

looked

nobody

was

going

get

close.

Let’s

look

back

what

created

such

strong

position

for

the

Team.

Re-live the action

One Lap Will Do

After topping all three timesheets in the practice session, Max must’ve felt confident going into qualifying. After only getting through Q1 in ninth it would’ve been a wakeup call. However, he didn’t take long to climb the leaderboard in Q3 as he went out on a fresh set of soft tyres. Max stormed around the 14-turn circuit and set a lap time of 1:12.272 – more than nine tenths of a second clear of second-placed Lewis Hamilton.

That time was to be untouchable and even though Max went out in the closing stages to ensure his pole position, but when second-placed Carlos Sainz could only get 0.462s within Max’s time, GP radioed Max to abort the lap and spare the tyres.

Congratulations Given And Recieved

Protecting The Lead

The Team decided to start Max on the medium tyres, whereas Sainz, and most of the grid, in P2 was on the softs. Max would have to drive hard from lights out to keep ahead of his rival going into turn one.

Sainz pulled level with Max before the turn, but the Dutchman held his line and pushed Sainz out, keeping the lead into turn two. From there Max pulled out of DRS range of the Ferrari.

Early Lead

Climbing The Ranks

Checo struggled in qualifying and had to settle for P11, however he didn’t let his head drop as he found himself in the points by the end of lap one.

Checo’s superior tyre management skills helped his cause. When he pitted for softs with 15 laps remaining, he was already up to P5. With his fresh red-walled rubber he was able to get in front of Carlos Sainz for P4 and began chasing down the Mercedes of George Russell for the podium position. With time running out, Checo managed to cut the gap from over 11 seconds, down to under 2.3s, but the Mexican driver ran out of laps having to settle for P4 after making up 7 positions during the race.

Checo Down The Inside

Super Stops

With a two-stop strategy it was going to be a busy day in the pits for the Team, but they were as fast as lightning and collected the two fastest pit stops of the day. The fastest was just 2.07s when Checo came in to swap out his medium tyres for hards, with the second quickest just 2.28s for Max. Checo’s stop was the fastest of the season for any team, showing just how slick the garage is!

Practice Makes Perfect

Slam Dunk

The weekend saw Max collect the third Grand Chelem of his career and the first for this season. The Grand Chelem consists of: pole position, fastest lap, race win and possibly the hardest component, leading every lap.

Max did this in style thanks to his racecraft, tyre management and the Team’s pit strategy. The champion saw nothing but clear tarmac in front of him for the entire 66 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix as he collected his 40th career race win.

Race - Spain Grand Prix 2023

View From The Front

Early Lead

Zooming In Front

Stewards Watching On

Checo Down The Inside

Practice Makes Perfect

Holding Off The Competition

Orange Army