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Written by Nina Rogerson
Max Verstappen continues Red Bull winning streak with a dominating victory in Barcelona ahead of the Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell with their first double podium of 2023.
Image via formula1.com
Verstappen led the race from lights out and crossed the line with a 24 second lead. This was the third victory for Verstappen at the Spanish circuit and with the fastest lap, he was able to take maximum points to increase his championship lead.
Image via Formula1.com
It was a day to celebrate for the Mercedes team as Lewis Hamilton was able to take 2nd place even after contact with Lando Norris on the first lap and an early battle with Carlos Sainz. George Russell put in a strong performance to fight his way through the field from 12th on the grid to secure 3rd place.
Sergio Perez recovered from 11th on the grid but not enough to secure a podium so the
second of the Red Bulls had to settle for 4th. Carlos Sainz wasn’t able to convert his qualifying position into a home podium as he dropped from the leading group and crossed the line in 5th.
Although there was no podium for Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin team did manage to secure a solid haul of points with Lance Stroll finishing in 6th and Alonso coming home in 7th.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was unable to make it back-to-back podiums and had to settle for 8th place. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda had been running in 9th place but a 5-second penalty for forcing the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu off the track meant that he finished in 12th. Due to the penalty for Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Pierre Gasly in the Alpine rounded off the point finishers.
It was another tough day for Charles Leclerc after struggling with the car during qualifying meant he was out in Q1 and had qualified P19. Since the Ferrari team had made changes to the car, he was then subject to a pit lane start for the first time since Monaco 2019. Leclerc tried to fight his way through the field but ultimately was unable to get inside the points and finished in 11th after Tsunoda’s penalty.
Image via Formula1.com
It was a strong qualifying for the two McLarens with Lando Norris qualifying P3 and Oscar Piastri qualifying P10 but with damage from first lap contact for Norris and overall slow pace from the pair, they were unable to convert their strong qualifying. Piastri slotted in behind Tsunoda to take 13th whilst Norris crossed the line in 17th.
The second of the AlphaTauri’s Nyck De Vries came home in 14th with the lead Haas Nico Hulkenberg following in 15th and the lead Williams of Alex Albon finishing in 16th.
Behind Norris, it was the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen in 18th with Valterri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo and Logan Sargeant in the Williams bringing up the rear in 19th and 20th.
The action kicks off again at the Canadian Grand Prix in just under two weeks’ time where Red Bull will be looking to continue their domination with another win!
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