Max Verstappen took his seventh race win of the season with a mature performance at the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix, followed by Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
The Dutchman muscled into the race lead on lap three and consistently managed the gap to a determined Norris, who had to settle for his fourth second-place finish of the year.
Hamilton turned his third-place grid position into his first podium of the season, battling with his teammate in a similar fashion to the Canadian Grand Prix.
Story of the race
With Norris and Verstappen taking up the front row, few expected to see the Mercedes of George Russell heading up the field at the start of lap two, making up three places by the first corner, gliding around the outside of the McLaren and Red Bull.
The lead didn’t last long however, with Verstappen using the DRS and tow to sail back past his rival at the start of lap three.
Russell would hold off pole-sitter Norris however, who was followed by Hamilton and the two Ferrari’s.
The leading pack would remain in formation for the next 10 laps, with Mercedes, Ferrari and Norris all simultaneously trying to manage the balance between pace and tyre-wear.
Alpine were enjoying their best race of the campaign, with Pierre Gasly running in seventh and keeping the McLaren of Oscar Piastri behind, until a near seven-second pit-stop undid all of the Frenchman’s hard work.
Pit stop troubles would follow elsewhere, with Russell suffering a 5 -second stop of his own, putting him at risk of being overtaken by Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton came out of his tyre-change behind Sainz, but an unrelenting attack on laps 19 and 20 saw the 7-time world champion retake the position with a daring dive down the inside of turn 1.
Norris, Piastri and Charles Leclerc extended their first stint and ignored the guided pit-window, in an attempt to make up positions through an alternative strategy.
A resurgent Norris stopped on lap 23, coming out behind Sainz, with Leclerc following the McLaren next time round, re-entering the race in seventh.
Norris used his tyre-offset effectively, gaining seconds on Verstappen in the laps after his stop, including a clinical pass on Sainz at the start of lap 27.
The McLaren driver would continue his charge and breeze past Hamilton on lap 32, before setting his sights on the sister Mercedes of Russell.
His teammate Piastri carried on the overtaking theme, moving past Gasly to round out the top seven.
A track once famed for its static races and lack of passing, Spain was anything but today, with Norris and Russell commencing in one of the season’s tightest battles for position.
The two good friends would swap places for half a lap, jinxing and placing their machines with inch-perfect accuracy around the Circuit de Catalunya.
McLaren would beat out their engine suppliers and Norris set sights on Verstappen, with his crucial tyre-offset still an important factor.
The Dutchman would make his final stop on lap 45, onto a new set of softs, relinquishing the race lead to Norris, who immediately started firing in purple sector times.
Norris would pit from the front on lap 47 and crucially found himself ahead of Russell, who was struggling on the unfavourable hard tyre after the final round of stops.
Hamilton ran longer than his teammate during the middle stint, allowing him the luxury of soft tyres for the final stretch, which saw the 2025 Ferrari driver close right up to Russell.
Hustling his Mercedes around the circuit , Hamilton guided the W15 round the outside of his opposite number, to move up into the podium positions.
Norris would chase Verstappen down, but the world champion had enough pace in hand to comfortably take the chequered flag and collect his third consecutive Spanish Grand Prix victory.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari’s followed in unison, with Piastri, Perez, Gasly and Esteban Ocon rounding out the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg finished in 11th place for the fifth time in the last seven races, followed by hometown hero Fernando Alonso, with Aston Martin lacking the pace for the 42-year-old to challenge for the points.
Guanyu Zhou, Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo and Valterri Bottas came next, in a race that saw the Finn behind his teammate for the first time since Imola.
Kevin Magnussen was 17th, with Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant split by the RB of Yuki Tsunoda.
A tough race of attrition ended in defeat once again for Norris, who was visibly annoyed after the race.
McLaren now have the pace to challenge Red Bull everywhere, but Verstappen proved his undeniable worth to his team , with the Dutchman admitting that he was no longer piloting the fastest car.
All 20 drivers finished the Spanish Grand Prix, for the second year running, with no yellow flags.
The second race of a triple-header comes in the form of Austria, next Sunday.
