Max Verstappen was the winner of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona as the Red Bull edged out McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Verstappen won from second on the grid to win the Spanish Grand Prix for a third year in a row, and in the process the Dutch driver extended his advantage in both championships.
The victory was Verstappen’s seventh in the ten races so far in 2024, despite Norris’ McLaren taking pole and being the faster car in the latter stages of the race.
As it was, a poor start from Norris saw Verstappen overtake him into turn one, and although George Russell surprised both cars who started on the front row to swipe the lead, Verstappen passed Russell and maintained enough of a gap to take the win.
Meanwhile, Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez finished 8th, with the Mexican scoring points for the first time in three races after failing to finish in the last two rounds.
Victory means that Verstappen retains a comfortable lead in the World Driver’s Championship, with the Dutch driver up to 219 points. He holds a 69 point lead on Norris, who jumped ahead of Charles Leclerc to take second in the standings.
Perez, meanwhile, now has 111 points and sits fifth in the championship. He is 5 points behind Carlos Sainz and 24 points ahead of Oscar Piastri.
In the Constructor’s Championship, Red Bull maintain the advantage with 330 points from the opening ten rounds of the 2024 F1 season. The Milton Keynes-based team are 50 points ahead of Ferrari, who currently sit second.
Verstappen had been narrowly pipped to pole in Saturday’s qualifying session by Norris, and at the start of the race, the two had a duel into turn one. Verstappen had been able to overtake Norris at turn one, but Mercedes driver Russell pulled off a flying move to bypass both cars and take the lead.
Russell would lead for just two laps, however, as Verstappen was able to get past and duly set off building an advantage.
While Verstappen would maintain a net lead after the first round of pit stops, Norris seemed to be the quicker car after the second round of pit stops later on in the race and was able to close the gap down from 9 seconds to around 3.
However, Verstappen had enough tyre life to outlast the McLaren, maintaining a gap of over two seconds to see the job through and win the Spanish Grand Prix for a fourth time.
Meanwhile, Perez had qualified 8th but started in 11th after taking a three place grid penalty for driving an unsafe car at the last round in Canada.
But hopes of being able to progress up the field came unstuck when he was stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg for a large part of the afternoon.
Eventually, Perez would be one of the only drivers to adopt a three stop strategy after a late switch. This would be enough to see him jump ahead of the two Alpine cars, with Perez passing ex-Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly on the final lap, but he was still over 25 seconds behind Piastri in front.