Max Verstappen visibly breathed a sigh of relief. “It was very close, we had to choose an aggressive strategy,” said the Dutchman after his seventh victory in the tenth Formula 1 race of the season, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Triumphs now require hard work for the world champion. In the Red Bull he won in Barcelona on Sunday just ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren) and Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes: “We couldn’t afford a mistake, I had to step on the gas.” It was worth it. In the drivers’ championship he increased his lead to 69 points over Norris. He recognized what had changed in the scene. It’s no longer about luck: “I should have won.” Consolidation of the performance elite Barcelona became a place of pilgrimage again. No seat remained free on Sunday, supposedly 100,000 spectators. Although the race track, no matter how beautifully curved it may lead over mountains and valleys, does not have many exciting Formula 1 stories to tell, but rather offers processions. External content from Twitter In order to display external content, your revocable consent is required. Personal data from third-party platforms (possibly USA) may be processed. Additional Information . Activate external contentFew overtaking maneuvers, winners in the past seven years have at best come from the second row of the grid, like Verstappen on Sunday. And so the tenth chapter of the 2024 Formula 1 season begins with a repeat. The world champion at the front again. Confident again. And yet something is brewing behind it. What has been apparent for weeks was what the race offered from the first lap. An exciting consolidation of the performance elite. McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari have recently repeatedly appeared within striking distance, overtaking Red Bull, even the car with the special helmsman Verstappen in the cockpit. And then they don’t manage to leave the champion behind. Because the Dutchman knows how to cleverly use the approach of the competition.Russell shoots aheadA Mercedes in front? This was already evident in Canada two weeks ago, when George Russell stormed into pole position. At the gates of Barcelona, the Englishman shot past Verstappen and Norris into the lead after starting at the end of the straight on the outside lane. Using the acceleration from a standstill for a clean 550 meters, Russell weaved his way through the crowd before the first corner. External content from Twitter In order to display external content, your revocable consent is required. Personal data from third-party platforms (possibly USA) may be processed. Additional Information . Activate external contentHis compatriot Norris, who was fastest in qualifying training on Saturday by 0.02 seconds, atone for this marginal lead. Nothing is more helpful than slipstream for pilots in cars that are so susceptible to wind. Assuming the cars are roughly the same speed. In Spain, team bosses like Toto Wolff (Mercedes) spoke of nuances. Sometimes it’s just a matter of tire pressure and temperatures. One or two degrees Celsius more or less as a performance-determining factor? Verstappen made this assessment seem a bit like hot air. He absorbed Russell’s lead. The overtaking maneuver into the lead was one of the easiest. And he pulled away for two, three, four, five seconds. Nothing can be done for the Silver Arrows faction, especially not for Ferrari. They still contributed to the entertainment. Tension in the air, with tough attacks on each other, with wheel-to-wheel duels between Hamilton and Sainz. Nico Hülkenberg, eleventh again, also contributed as he left Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) behind. Here and there the cars touch each other on Sunday, drivers complain, the race management wisely keeps silent. Nothing happens except sports. And that’s why there’s tension in the air. Because McLaren and Norris were betting on victory with a different strategy. Stay out for a long time, drive for a long time in order to be able to overtake the series world champion in the last third via the detour of a pit stop. A difficult calculation, nerve-wracking. Because Norris seems to be losing touch, second by second. When he returns after his first pit stop on the 24th lap, Verstappen had come for service on the 19th, there are a good eleven. But nothing happened. Norris races up, passes Hamilton, fights with Russell. Razor-sharp, not wasting an inch. Norris wins. “Give it gas, someone is coming.” He’s not just sitting in the back of Verstappen’s head: seven seconds left and twenty tours to go. This is the moment for the world champion team to draw the final card. Pit stop in the 45th for Verstappen, out again with new tires. Full throttle. And while waiting, fleeing. An interesting constellation: waiting for Norris. He has to turn again. Now comes the “decisive” phase, his race engineer calls out to him. Three laps after Verstappen, he changes a second time. The mechanics need 3.8 seconds to change the tire. Way too long. 1.9 is quoted for Red Bull. The world champion team is also fixed off the track.More on the topicVerstappen takes the lead again. Albeit hunted by Norris. It doesn’t just nibble, it tears out larger pieces. Verstappen is given free rein and no longer has to take his tires into account. In other words: “Give it gas, there is someone coming who can do it.” Not Mercedes with the record world champion Hamilton, who has now easily passed Russell, not Ferrari, even if only just behind the Silver Arrows with Charles Leclerc (5th) and Carlos Sainz (6th). It is the re-promoted McLaren that crosses the finish line 2.2 seconds after Verstappen. Just a few more laps and he would have made it? Norris smiles. He knows when he has lost the race. At the beginning.
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