Red Bull Dominates the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix
Max Verstappen overcame an early mistake to take the win and the lead in the driver’s championship.
The ending was perfect for Red Bull, but the start was far from it.
Chasing Leclerc early, Max went off at the exact same place as Sainz and fell back to fourth. With a lot of ground to make up, Max pitted for a second time on only Lap 28 and committed to a rare 3-stop strategy.
Sergio Perez had a great start and overtook George Russell for the lead after Max made his second stop. Checo had a shot at the win, but gave the place to Verstappen with little fuss. Max had more pace, newer tyres, and Red Bull wants to maximize the champs points without risking a crash.
Ferrari had a day to forget other than Carlos Sainz salvaging P4.
Charles Leclerc covered Verstappen off the line and slowly stretched his lead over the opening third of the race. The ideal weekend turned to disaster as Charles lost power on Lap 28 and was forced to retire.
Carlos Sainz suffered a terrible start and gave up two places before the first turn. Ten laps later, Carlos went off into the gravel at Turn 4 and fell all the way back to P13. The error was reportedly due to a surprisingly strong crosswind at that spot.
Mercedes turned in a double top five with George Russell on the podium and Lewis Hamilton rallying from early trouble all the way to P5.
Russell had a solid start and took advantage of both Sainz’s and Verstappen’s errors, then showed off his race craft defending from Verstappen for nearly ten laps early on.
Max was hampered by faulty DRS, but that made for a fairly even fight with the slower Mercedes, and George showed no fear moving late to defend against the world champ.
Lewis was the only driver to start on medium tyres and fell back in the standings from the start. Kevin Magnussen tried to overtake him from the outside and made contact, sending both drivers to the back of the standings.
Dejected, Lewis suggested retiring to save his engine, but pressed on at the insistence of his race engineer Bono.
After slicing through two thirds of the field, Lewis was fighting Sainz for P4 late and managed a smooth outside overtake.
The triumphant finish was dampened as fuel issues forced Lewis to slow and return the place to Sainz, but Lewis still took home Driver of the Day.
Other Notes:
Valtteri Bottas finished sixth, turning in another solid weekend. Being the top driver on a team with less pressure seems to be suiting Bottas well.
Lando Norris overcame a case of Tonsillitis to gut out an eight place finish. Lando was under the weather all weekend and was eliminated from Q2 on Saturday after barely exceeding track limits.
Alpine turned in another double points finish with Ocon P7 and Alonso P9. Fernando took a new power unit after a disappointing qualifying and spent his home race carving up the field.
Whenever we have 2 or more pit stops it is always going to be a crazy race. Throughout the race, I felt like there is so much action going on. Fully enjoyed it!