Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton applauds ‘great weekend’ for Mercedes spanish,grand,prix,lewis,hamilton,applauds,great,weekend,for,mercedes,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one


Here is a fun trivia question for you.

Over the past two Formula 1 race weekends, what team has secured the most points?

If you guessed Mercedes then congratulations, you have been paying attention.

The Silver Arrows enjoyed a bit of a breakthrough in Montreal, as George Russell’s third-place finish marked the first podium in a Grand Prix for Mercedes this season. They followed that result with arguably an even better one this past weekend in Barcelona, as Lewis Hamilton qualified third for the Spanish Grand Prix and followed that with his first Grand Prix podium of the year, a third-place finish on Sunday. With Russell finishing just behind him in fourth, Mercedes banked 27 points in Barcelona, a week after notching 28 points in Montreal.

Are the Silver Arrows back?

Maybe not yet, but they are certainly closing the gap to the teams at the front of the grid.

“It’s been a really great weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium so I’m very happy! We’re not quite there yet but we’ve taken a huge step in recent races,” hailed Hamilton in the team’s post-race report. “We didn’t quite have the pace to fight with the two guys ahead of us but, if we can deliver more consistently like this, then we will be in a strong position. We are on our way to catching those guys and that is fantastic.”

Russell may have pulled off the move of the race with this stunning double overtake of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen heading into the first turn of the Grand Prix:

He reflected on that move after the race, with a bit of a history lesson.

I was dreaming of making a move like I did into turn one last night,” described Russell. “I didn’t think it would quite come to fruition in the way that it did! I remember Fernando [Alonso] making a similar start in 2013. We had a headwind so I knew I could brake quite late. It was a very satisfying move and felt good to lead a race again. Unfortunately, Max (Verstappen) was too fast for us today, as was Lando. But two podiums in two races is very encouraging as we head to Austria.”

Russell’s overtake might have been the move of the race, but Hamilton’s battle — and pass — of Carlos Sainz Jr. is also worth highlighting:

Like Russell, Hamilton took a moment to recall that battle and overtake.

“I was pleased with my move on Sainz too. I gave him enough room and we both made it through the corner,” recalled Hamilton. “It was an important move for my race, so I was glad to get it done. It’s now on to Austria and we’re looking forward to it.”

Their boss also took a moment to praise those moves, as well as the progress the team has made these past few weeks.

“We can take a lot of positives away from today. We have taken several steps forward in the previous few races and it is good to see these confirmed here in Spain,” began Toto Wolff. “We are not quite there yet, and we have to more to do to catch those ahead. Nevertheless, we are on a positive development trajectory, and it feels good to be back in the game.

“It was also fantastic to pull off two of the best overtakes I’ve seen in a long time. George made a mega start and braked late to take the lead. Lewis’s overtake on Sainz meanwhile was great racing and an important moment for his race,” continued the Silver Arrows boss. “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to enjoy a Grand Prix podium with Lewis, so it was fantastic to see him up there. We’re now looking forward to the next two races in the triple-header and building on the momentum we are establishing.”

Mercedes will now try and continue that momentum on short order, as the grid heads to Red Bull Ring for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. It will get started quickly, as this is one of the F1 Sprint Race weekends on the calendar.

Spanish Grand Prix: Pierre Gasly, Alpine F1 hail team’s ‘best race of the season’ spanish,grand,prix,pierre,gasly,alpine,f,hail,team,s,best,race,of,the,season,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

Spanish Grand Prix Pierre Gasly Alpine F1 hail teams ‘best


McLaren delivered a stunning turnaround throughout the 2023 Formula 1 season. A slow start saw the Woking-based operation limp out of the starting gate, and when the grid left the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix they were mired in sixth place with just 17 points on the season, 23 points behind fifth-place Alpine. But a series of upgrades to the MCL60 saw McLaren storm up the table passing several teams along the way, including Alpine.

Is the French team putting together a shocking turnaround of their own?

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished inside the points for the second straight race, with Gasly scoring a P9 finish and Ocon adding a P10, as the team added three more points to their account with a double-points result at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. After beginning the season with five straight races without a point, Alpine has now scored in four out of the last five race weekends to climb out of the F1 cellar, and into seventh place in the 2024 F1 Constructors’ Championship.

Gasly hailed the week as the team’s “best race of the season,” following the race.

“That was our best race of the season so far as a team, so on that front, I am very happy with today,” declared Gasly in the team’s post-race report. “We had a strong Qualifying on Saturday, which set us up for a good result in ninth place today. We executed the race well with the two-stop strategy and managed each stint well.”

The driver highlighted just how close he was to their best single result of the year, as he finished just seconds behind eighth-place finisher Sergio Pérez.

“We almost had eighth place and only missed out on the last lap but I gave it my all. Even so, I’m happy with such a strong race where we battled two fast cars – the McLaren early on and then the Red Bull at the end – so that’s positive for us,” continued Gasly. “We must understand why the package was strong here and take these learnings going forward. We are progressing in a good direction, that’s three points scoring finishes in a row, and we have to keep that going!”

On the other side of the garage, Ocon outlined that it was a “challenging” race, but one that saw a “satisifying” conclusion for the team.

“It was good to get both cars in the points for a second consecutive Grand Prix. It was a challenging race for us with car balance and some tricky stints but nevertheless we managed to bring the car home inside the top ten again and that’s satisfying,” described Ocon.

“It was close with Nico [Hülkenberg] at the end but we were able to maintain pace and grab the final point on merit on track. We have things to analyse such as why the car felt harder to drive in race conditions as I was sliding quite a lot,” continued the Alpine driver. “Even so, we were much more competitive this weekend and we’ve come out of it with a good reward. We will aim to continue our points run in Austria next weekend where we have two opportunities to score points with the Sprint.”

Photo by Kym Illman/Getty Images

Team Principal Bruno Famin — who faced some questions earlier in the week with the news that Alpine was bringing Flavio Briatore aboard in an executive role — hailed the “positive trend” from the team in recent weeks.

“It’s pleasing to have again both cars in the points here in Spain and to score at the last three Grands Prix as a team. It’s a positive trend, which we must keep continuing. We were better at this track and we must analyse the reasons why in order to keep improving our overall package. The race was a tough two-stop for both cars,” described Famin. “The two drivers did a good job, especially in [tire], energy, and fuel management. Next up is the Sprint weekend in Austria where we aim to continue our positive run inside the points.”

Last year at the Red Bull Ring Alpine banked three points, with Ocon securing a pair of points with a P7 in the F1 Sprint, and Gasly adding one more with a tenth-place finish in the Grand Prix. A similar result next weekend would see Alpine creep into double digits on the season, and a few more points closer to sixth-place VCARB.

Perhaps not enough to truly mirror last year’s McLaren rise, but certainly an improvement given where they started the year.

F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Daniel Ricciardo and VCARB licking their wounds after ‘poor weekend’ f,spanish,grand,prix,daniel,ricciardo,and,vcarb,licking,their,wounds,after,poor,weekend,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

F1 Spanish Grand Prix Daniel Ricciardo and VCARB licking their


As far as weekends go, this was one to forget for Daniel Ricciardo and the entire Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.

While VCARB arrived at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hopeful that a series of upgrades to the RB01 would unlock additional performance, from the opening laps of FP1 it was clear that they would be on the back foot. That continued into qualifying — which saw Ricciardo and teammate Yuki Tsunoda eliminated in Q1 — and extended into the race itself. Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda finished outside the points, leaving VCARB to lick their wounds after their first points-less weekend since the Chinese Grand Prix back in April.

Team Principal Laurent Mekies was blunt in his assessment.

“We came here with high hopes for the upgrades that everyone back in the factory has worked so hard to design and produce as part of our aggressive development strategy, began Mekies in the team’s post-race report. “Unfortunately, right from the start of Free Practice we were lacking pace in every session.

“There is no point denying this was a poor weekend for us and although the gaps were very small, we’re not going to make excuses for the fact we just weren’t competitive,” continued the VCARB boss. “Given our starting positions, it would have required some unusual circumstances – rain, a safety car – but the race was pretty linear and while both drivers did their best, we leave Spain with nothing to show for our efforts.”

Tsunoda kept his assessment short and to the point.

“It was a tough race, in which I struggled. The handling of the car was definitely not easy, and I did not feel as comfortable as I normally do,” described Tsunoda. “Something wasn’t quite right, and we’ll analyse everything that happened to understand what did not work well and come back stronger in Austria.”

Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images

Ricciardo, often the optimistic one in the team’s garage, did his best to put a positive spin on things. The Australian driver managed to highlight some bright spots on a dismal day in Barcelona.

“It’s obviously disappointing finishing in P15, but I’m happy with my race and how we managed it as a team with the two stops. I think yesterday I just missed a touch in qualifying, but honestly, today I feel like I [maximized] it with a good race,” described Ricciardo. “We managed the [tires] and pushed when we needed to, so unfortunately, I think we just didn’t have more to show this weekend. There’s certainly lots to learn from weekends like this.

“We take a few little positives and a few more things to work on because we seem to be missing something with the new package. It’s a quick turnaround, so we’ll work on it tonight, trying to understand more in preparation for Austria next week.”

The VCARB boss concluded with a bit of a challenge to the team.

“Now, our whole group faces a stern test to try and make some progress in the very few days available until we are back on track at the Red Bull Ring,” said Mekies. “It’s a very long season, so there are bound to be some tough weekends. We just have to put this one behind us, we must not get downhearted but instead, look ahead and focus on fighting back immediately in a few days’ time in Austria.”

Thankfully for the team, they will not have too much time to lick those wounds, as Red Bull Ring awaits.

Lando Norris’ anguish tells the story of both the F1 Spanish Grand Prix and the season lando,norris,anguish,tells,the,story,of,both,the,f,spanish,grand,prix,and,the,season,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

Lando Norris anguish tells the story of both the F1


The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya contains the longest run from the start-finish line to the first turn on the entire Formula 1 schedule. Measuring in at 579 meters from the pole position grid box to Turn 1, that is a lot of ground to cover at the start of a Grand Prix.

Saturday night those 579 meters must have been on Lando Norris’ mind.

Starting in P1, Norris knew he had to close the door on Max Verstappen at the start of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. To beat Verstappen you need to be perfect, you need to be “balls out” as Norris rather eloquently described on Saturday after snaring pole position from his rival. That meant slamming the door on Verstappen — one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen — over those first 579 meters and holding on from there.

Try as he might after the lights went out, Norris could not fend him off. Verstappen was able to get by his friend and rival shortly after the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix began after a hard bit of racing between the two.

Their initial fight opened the door for George Russell, albeit for just a moment. Russell was able to overtake both drivers with a stunning double overtake at the start to take an early lead in the race.

But Verstappen was not behind the Mercedes for long. Prodded on by race engineer Gianpiero “GP” Lambiase, Verstappen stuck his own overtake of Russell on Lap 3 to get into the lead.

Where he would finish, capturing his seventh Grand Prix victory of the season.

Again, however, he needed to push. In the closing stages of the race, Norris was again trying to close the gap, extracting every last bit of rubber out of his tires, much as he did at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix a few weeks ago. At Imola, Norris just needed one more lap and he might have caught his friend, ultimately losing by less than a second. In Barcelona, Norris could only close the gap to around two seconds, and at the end of the race when informed by his team he had indeed finished second, the McLaren driver was distraught.

“Should have won,” started Norris. “I ******* up the start.”

But that anguish from Norris perhaps tells the bigger story of this Formula 1 season. A year ago a P2 finish, two seconds behind Verstappen, would have been considered a massive win for any team. At this track a year ago Verstappen won by over 24 seconds.

That gap is down to just two seconds this year.

Verstappen may go on to secure his fourth-straight Drivers’ Championship. He may carry Red Bull to their third-straight Constructors’ title.

But this year, he and Red Bull are going to have to work for it.

Here are the full results from the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix, as well as some more winners and losers.

Winners: McLaren

“Not could, should have.”

That is how Lando Norris described his effort at the Spanish Grand Prix to David Coulthard trackside after the race. Norris was emphatic that not only could he have won this race, but that he should have.

Again, that anguish highlights just how much the game has changed this F1 season.

Norris may rue the start to the Spanish Grand Prix, where as outlined above he faced one of the biggest challenges on the calendar, which is holding the lead over the long run into Turn 1 at Barcelona. Norris gave it everything he had, even forcing Verstappen hard to the inside in an incident that race officials investigated, but took no further action on as it was an opening-lap racing incident. But in the end, Verstappen was just too much.

On this day. Upcoming races, however, may be different.

“Austria and Silverstone are two of my favorite tracks,” added Norris to Coulthard. “I need to just tidy up a few little bits and I’ll be on top.”

Still, this was another strong day for McLaren. Norris kept his streak alive of being the only driver this season to secure points in every Grand Prix, and his 18 points — along with the bonus point for the fastest lap of the race — along with the six points from Oscar Piastri’s P7 saw McLaren bank 25 points on the day. That is seven more points than that 18 Ferrari took home thanks to a P5 from Charles Leclerc and a P6 from Carlos Sainz Jr.

Inching McLaren a few points closer to the Scuderia in their fight for second in the Constructors’ Championship.

Loser: C1 hard compound

Photo by Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images

In the game of F1 tire strategy, there was a clear loser this Sunday: The C1 compound, designated by Pirelli as the “hard” compound for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

A two-stop strategy was highlighted throughout the buildup to the Spanish Grand Prix as the ideal path for teams, but those potential strategies often utilized some variation of soft and medium tires. As illustrated by the brilliant Ruth Buscombe on F1TV — whose move from Head of Race Strategy at Sauber to an analyst on F1TV has been a massive addition to the coverage — given the surface in Barcelona drivers want to be on as soft a compound as possible at the end of the race, otherwise the grip is just not there.

But two teams in contention rolled the dice on those C1 tires: Mercedes with George Russell and Ferrari with Carlos Sainz Jr.

Both drivers eventually saw their teammates overtake them on softer tires, with Charles Leclerc getting by Sainz for P5 and Lewis Hamilton overtaking Russell on a set of softs for the final podium position.

And further back in the field some teams that tried to extend longer runs on the hards in hopes of something breaking their way, only saw those tires fade down the stretch of those runs.

For those wondering, the C1 hard compound will not come into play at next weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, as Pirelli has already identified the three compounds for that race weekend. The C3, which was the softest compound in Barcelona, will be the hard compound at Red Bull Ring, with the C4 serving as the medium and the C5 as the soft.

Silverstone, however, will see the C1, the C2, and the C3 back in service.

That gives the C1 two weeks to think about what it’s done …

Winners: Mercedes

“It’s been a good day,” described Lewis Hamilton after the race to David Coulthard.

Sunday was indeed a good day for Mercedes. The Spanish Grand Prix began with the Silver Arrows having the second row all to themselves, with Lewis Hamilton in P3 and George Russell in P4.

And that is how they ended, bringing home 27 points on the weekend, another solid haul for the team.

Dating back to the Miami Grand Prix when Mercedes started rolling out a series of upgrades to their 2024 challenger, the W15, the talk from the team has been that of “progress.” But over the past two race weekends, that progress has been fully realized. Russell notched the team’s first Grand Prix podium of the season with his third-place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix, and Hamilton made it two in a row for the Brackley-based team with his first Grand Prix podium of the season in Barcelona. (Hamilton finished second in the F1 Sprint Race at the Chinese Grand Prix back in April).

Speaking with Coulthard the seven-time Drivers’ Champion hailed the effort from the team. “I have to say a big thank you to the team because they just, they’ve been training so hard,” described Hamilton. “The strategy and the pit stops were really on point.”

Sunday’s result pulled Mercedes two points closer to McLaren, and also nine points closer to Ferrari, in the Constructors’ Championship standings. With a long way to go in this season, there is reason to believe that Mercedes can truly turn this progress into performance and eventually, positions in the standings.

Losers: Aston Martin

Aston Martin has been downplaying expectations all week. Following Saturday’s qualifying session that saw both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll end their days in Q2, Team Principal Mike Krack outlined how that was “ … the best we had in the car today.” That meant a podium finish was likely out of the cards, and points were their only achievable goal.

A goal that they could not accomplish on Sunday.

By the time the checkered flag flew both drivers were on the outside of the points looking in, with Stroll in 14th and hometown hero Alonso a few spots ahead, in P12.

Aston Martin is slowly finding themselves where Alpine was a season ago. Just quick enough that the teams at the back end of the midfield cannot pose a true threat, but stuck too far outside range of the teams ahead of them. As the field heads to Red Bull Ring Aston Martin find themselves now 93 points behind fourth-place Mercedes, and with the recent run of form from the Silver Arrows, that gap will likely only grow over the next two races.

Thankfully for Aston Martin their closest pursuers, VCARB, had some struggles of their own and could not chip away at the 30 points that separate those two teams.

Still, after a stunning start to the 2023 season that had Aston Martin the talk of the paddock, things have certainly changed for them this season.

Winners: Alpine

Speaking of Alpine …

The French team began the year with six straight races without a single point to show for their hard work.

But after breaking through with their first point of the year, a tenth-place finish from Esteban Ocon at the Miami Grand Prix the driver described as a sign they were “ … headed in the right direction,” the team has now scored in four of the last five race weekends. Not only did Alpine add to their tally again this weekend, but with both Ocon and Pierre Gasly finishing in the points (Ocon in tenth, Gasly in ninth) it marks the second-straight double-points finish for the team.

They still have a long way to go to catch VCARB ahead of them in the standings, as they trail Red Bull’s sister team by 20 points as the grid leaves Barcelona, but this graph from Formula1Points illustrates the upward trajectory we have seen from Alpine in recent weeks:

Screenshot 2024 06 23 at 11.27.31 AM

Can they keep that momentum into Austria, and throughout the rest of the season?

It would make for quite the comeback story.

Abbi Pulling dominates first F1 Academy race at the Spanish Grand Prix abbi,pulling,dominates,first,f,academy,race,at,the,spanish,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one


Abbi Pulling swept the weekend the last time the F1 Academy was in action, capturing both races at the Miami Grand Prix.

And the Alpine driver is picking up right where she left off.

Pulling is well on her way to another sweep after capturing the first of two races for F1 Academy at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. Pulling began the race in pole position, and fended off a tremendous start from Nerea Martí to secure the lead over the first lap. Martí took advantage of a stall off the line from Doriane Pin and jumped to the inside, getting a slipstream from Pulling into Turn 1.

Martí then jumped to the outside and looked to have the edge on Pulling around the outer racing line, but the Alpine driver soon slammed the door shut, leading the opening lap.

However, the safety car came out at the end of the first lap due to an incident involving Maya Weug, Amna Al Qubaisi, and Lola Lovinfosse. Weug and Al Qubaisi ended up in the gravel following contact between the three cars.

That meant Pulling needed to survive a restart but the British driver built a lead over Marti of nearly a second off the rolling restart, and began to pull away from the field. By the time the checkered flag flew, the Alpine driver was nearly five seconds clear of Martí, who held on for P2.

Haas driver Chloe Chambers, who secured the first-ever podium finish for the team with a P3 in the first race in Miami, notched her second podium with another P3. McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante came across the line fourth, and Hamda Al Qubaisi finished in fifth.

Pin managed to recover from her slow start which shuffled her back in the field, salvaging a seventh-place finish.

But Pulling was the story, as she now has four-straight victories and remains atop the F1 Academy Drivers’ Championship standings. Pulling even captured the fastest lap over the session, picking up a bonus point for her incredible effort. She will look for another weekend sweep tomorrow, when she starts up front for F1 Academy’s second race at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Lando Norris needed ‘balls out’ final lap to beat Max Verstappen lando,norris,needed,balls,out,final,lap,to,beat,max,verstappen,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

Lando Norris needed ‘balls out final lap to beat


Immediately after qualifying on Saturday at the Spanish Grand Prix Lando Norris stated that it took a “perfect lap” to beat Max Verstappen. Norris pipped the Red Bull driver by two-hundredths of a second to capture the second pole position of his career, putting him in position to score his second victory of the season.

Moments later at the FIA Press Conference, the McLaren driver went even further, outlining how his final lap needed to be “balls out” to beat Verstappen.

“I mean, we’re always close. I don’t think any practice was split by more than a tenth between the top five,” described Norris. “So I was expecting the same as that, and I think it was. Probably Max was always two and a half tenths ahead of everyone, both Q1 and Q2 in the runs we did. And we did three laps, you know, we did three runs, four runs in the end altogether. So you do four laps throughout the whole of qualifying. But every time was like missing a little bit to Max and a lot of it was high speed.

“So I knew for the final lap, I’ve got to go balls out and do it, you know. And I managed to get that little bit, like that, you know, 200ths, 300ths, 400ths that I was needing to get out of Max I managed to get. So I’m happy the risks paid off and for all of it to come together when I needed it most was great.”

Norris elaborated on how good it felt to put together that kind of lap, in that moment and on that stage.

“I mean, I’m probably going to get back and Jarv [Andrew Jarvis], my engineer, is going to tell me that I’ve messed something up, but I think it’s so tricky nowadays, with the car and the [tires], and we’re pushing so much, just to put everything together,” outlined Norris. “You might be able to do half of it once and half of it another or mix it up, but to kind of put all of it right at that limit is very tricky and I’m sure every driver would say the same. So very rewarding when you do and when you do it and end up on pole because of it, it’s even sweeter.”

“It feels great, yeah. I mean, poles always feel good, and it’s the second one in my career. I mean, I’ve had two Sprint race poles, but I don’t regard that at all as a pole position. So, yeah, this is the second one of my career. It’s been a while since Sochi, all the way back then, so… Yeah, it feels great,” continued Norris. “I mean, it was an amazing lap.

“Honestly, it was my best lap by a long way. I pretty much put the whole lap together, so I got a nice slipstream. I think probably my best corner around the lap, every single part of it put together. Max was a bit ahead in Q1, Q2. I knew I had to kind of do something perfect in Q3 to do it. And that’s exactly what I did. So I’m pretty happy that I managed to pull off probably my best lap that I’ve done probably ever.”

As we outlined earlier today after diving into the data, Norris secured pole position with a strong performance in Sector 1 and into Sector 2. While Verstappen was stronger on the straights, particularly the long straight coming out of Turn 14 and back to the start/finish line, Norris built a lead during that earlier portion of the track, and Verstappen could not make up the difference.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Capturing pole position is one thing, but can Norris win on Sunday?

The McLaren driver certainly believes he can.

“I don’t have any concerns,” added Norris. “I mean I’m excited. It’s a long run down to Turn 1. It’s probably one of the places you don’t want to start on pole, but it’s an opportunity for us to go out and try and win a race you know.

“We’ve not done loads of long running. We’ve done a bit and I think we were close, as it always has been. I think tomorrow is not like this car is way quicker. I think between Mercedes, ourselves, Red Bull, Ferrari, there’s eight cars that could have probably been on pole today and that have a chance of probably winning the race tomorrow,” continued Norris. “So it’s about making the least mistakes, similar to today, and just trying to execute another good race that we normally do.”

He might need to go “balls out” yet again to pull off a win on Sunday.

Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo remaining ‘positive’ despite hard Saturday at Spanish GP yuki,tsunoda,and,daniel,ricciardo,remaining,positive,despite,hard,saturday,at,spanish,gp,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one


Visa Cash App RB F1 Team has come away with points in four straight races, dating back to the Miami Grand Prix. That weekend saw both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda finish in the points in the F1 Sprint Race — a result Ricciardo enjoyed deep into the afternoon in Miami, even after his struggles in qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix — and kicked off a string of good results for the team, including Ricciardo’s P8 in the Canadian Grand Prix.

That streak appears headed for an end at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Like many teams, VCARB brought a series of upgrades to Barcelona, but those upgrades have yet to materialize into results on the track. After a Friday that saw both drivers at the back of the field, the team hoped the data would uncover some answers for improved lap times on Saturday.

No such luck. Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda were eliminated in Q1, and they will start alongside each other in the ninth row on Sunday, with Tsunoda in P17 and Ricciardo in P18.

Despite that result, both drivers remained positive in their post-qualifying comments.

“We’ve been struggling with pace this weekend and tried multiple things to try and improve, and in the end, I felt better in qualifying than in Free Practice. At least I’m happy with my lap and feel like I was able to maximise the current package,” said Tsunoda. “The last races have been going well and even if it’s a shame, I think it’s important that we’re facing this more difficult moment together as a team. It’s a good opportunity to learn from our struggles and grow as a team. The most important thing is to remain positive, and we certainly will.”

While the lap times were not there for Ricciardo, he still believes that the team made progress overnight with the setup.

“It’s a tricky weekend. We have a lot of new parts on the car, and we still need to understand the best way to make them work,” began Ricciardo. “After yesterday, when we were still finding a bit of balance, we made pretty big changes overnight and today in qualifying the car felt much more together.

“We made progress in terms of feeling and balance, but unfortunately, we’re still in a tough spot in terms of the stopwatch. Being out of Q1 with both cars, especially using three sets of soft each, shows that at the moment, we don’t have the pace,” continued the VCARB driver. “There’s still more to find and we’ll keep chipping away. Tomorrow is going to come around quick, but we have a few races ahead of us with similar track characteristics, so we obviously need to figure out together the things we’re missing.”

Jody Egginton, the team’s Technical Director, praised both drivers for their feedback to the team. While VCARB may not be happy with the results at the moment, Egginton sounded hopeful that this weekend has laid the groundwork for further progress over the rest of the year.

“In terms of car balance, there has been some improvement,” began Egginton. “This alone has not been enough, so clearly, we have a lot of homework to do tonight, but also ahead of Austria, to extract more from the car and a large part of this work will be [analyzing] in detail the aero data we have gathered here in Barcelona.

“On the flip side, both drivers have done a good job of supporting the engineering team with feedback on the numerous test items we have evaluated here and also extracting the maximum from the cars we have been able to provide them with, so we have plenty of data to work with to make the necessary steps forward.”

Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton ‘focused’ on fighting for victory spanish,grand,prix,lewis,hamilton,focused,on,fighting,for,victory,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one


The last time Lewis Hamilton reached the top step of a Formula 1 podium, Max Verstappen had yet to win a Drivers’ Championship.

Could that change tomorrow?

Hamilton’s last victory came at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the penultimate race of that campaign. As readers likely know Verstappen went on to claim the win — and the 2021 Drivers’ Championship — in the following race, the still-debated 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Since then Hamilton and Mercedes have struggled to return to form, but recent upgrades by the team to their 2024 challenger, the W15, have improved performance on the track. Now Mercedes is coming off their best weekend of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix. Saturday in Barcelona Hamilton delivered his best qualifying performance of the year, finishing third behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Following the session, Hamilton made it clear: He is “focused” on fighting for a win.

“I am going into tomorrow focused on trying to fight for the win. We are in a good starting spot with that long run down to turn one,” said Hamilton in the team’s post-qualifying report. “Degradation will also play a key role tomorrow and I think our long runs in practice looked strong in that respect. I hope that translates into Sunday and we can have a good afternoon.”

Hamilton will not be the only Mercedes on the second row Sunday, as teammate George Russell qualified right behind Hamilton in fourth. On the other side of the garage, Russell also believes the team can fight at the front.

“On a circuit like this, the ultimate race pace of a car will always win out. I think our race pace looked good throughout the weekend so far and I hope we can fight for the podium and potentially victory,” said Russell. “The recent steps we’ve taken with the car are clearly helping and we’re looking forward to building on that momentum.”

It will be interesting to see how Mercedes handles the strategy options on Sunday. While both Norris and Verstappen are starting in front of the Silver Arrows pair, having both Russell and Hamilton in the second row gives Mercedes some options. Do they go with a split-tire strategy, or will we see both Hamilton and Russell on the same compound to begin the Spanish Grand Prix?

Hamilton hinted at some strategy options available to the team in Saturday’s FIA Press Conference.

“I think these two [Norris and Verstappen] will be very quick, but position is everything … You know, also there’s two of us, so hopefully we can apply pressure as a team to both of the cars ahead in order to maybe play out something in strategy and slowly climb up,” said Hamilton. “I think it’s all about degradation tomorrow and how you look after the [tires], so we won’t know until we get into that first run.”

Mercedes enters Sunday’s race in the strongest starting position of the season. Can they turn that into their best day of the F1 campaign?

We will know soon enough.

How Lando Norris grabbed pole from Max Verstappen at F1 Spanish Grand Prix how,lando,norris,grabbed,pole,from,max,verstappen,at,f,spanish,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

How Lando Norris grabbed pole from Max Verstappen at F1


Saturday’s qualifying session at the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix delivered one of the more thrilling hours in recent memory. A back-and-forth fight for pole position saw Max Verstappen put his RB20 on provisional pole in the closing seconds of Q3, but Lando Norris snatched P1 from his friend at the death, capturing pole position by just two-hundredths of a second.

How did Norris pull off the win, and what might Saturday’s results tell us about Sunday?

Let’s dive into the data a bit, thanks to our friends at F1-Tempo. First we can look at the “track dominance” map, highlighting where each car was faster on their final laps in Q3. As you might expect given recent history, the RB20 was faster on the straights — particularly the long straight coming out of Turn 14 and back to the start/finish line — while the MCL38 was quicker through some of the corners:

As you can see Norris — highlighted in the orange — was quicker particularly in Sector 1, which includes the initial chicane coming out of the long straight as well as the sweeping corner coming out of Turn 3 and heading into Repsol at Turn 4.

But on the straighter portions of the track, and the long straight itself, Verstappen was faster.

Verstappen also posted the highest speed on that long straight, a mark of 329 kilometers per hour. As you can see in this next image, that came near the end of the straight, heading into Turn 1. By comparison, Norris was 5 kph slower at that point:

Screenshot 2024 06 22 at 12.31.58 PM

Looking at the delta between the two cars at that point, Verstappen had an edge on the lap of 0.054 seconds per Norris at that point, coming out of that long straight:

Screenshot 2024 06 22 at 12.33.28 PM

Then as the cars hit Turn 1, Verstappen’s advantage was up to 0.125 seconds:

Screenshot 2024 06 22 at 12.37.41 PM

But as you can see from that above graph, Norris then built a lead as Sector 1 came to a close and Sector 2 began, and he held that lead throughout the rest of the lap, fending off a late challenge from Verstappen coming out of Turn 14 and back to the start/finish line (more on that in a second).

Norris built that lead through Turns 3, 4, and 5. As you can see from the initial “track dominance” map, Norris was quicker from Turn 3 into Turn 4, and while Verstappen had an edge from Turn 4 into Turn 5, Norris built a lead he would not give back. In fact, by the time both cars came out of Turn 5 Norris had gone from being 0.125 seconds down at one point, to being up 0.167 seconds on his friend and rival:

Screenshot 2024 06 22 at 12.39.26 PM

And if you look at the entire delta graph, while Verstappen was able to. close that gap over the rest of the lap, he could not make up the difference.

However, there is something to note regarding the final turn, Turn 14, as alluded to above. Take a look at the throttle data for that final turn:

Screenshot 2024 06 22 at 12.41.21 PM

Screenshot 2024 06 22 at 12.41.30 PM

As you can see, while Norris lifted just a bit heading into Turn 14, Verstappen was able to keep the hammer down through the final turn, giving him a huge run of momentum into the long straight and back to the start/finish line.

That has led to some believing that Verstappen is primed for an even bigger Sunday:

Could Turn 14 be the difference tomorrow?

We will know soon enough.

F1 Spanish Grand Prix qualifying results: Lando Norris snatches pole from Max Verstappen f,spanish,grand,prix,qualifying,results,lando,norris,snatches,pole,from,max,verstappen,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

F1 Spanish Grand Prix qualifying results Lando Norris snatches pole


“Lando Norris with perhaps one of the finest laps he’s turned in a Formula 1 car.”

That was the description from Alex Jacques in the commentary box on F1TV after the checkered flag flew at the end of qualifying. And if Saturday’s qualifying session at the Spanish Grand Prix is any indication, the rest of this F1 season may be filled with tremendous drama.

Max Verstappen threw down the gauntlet throughout qualifying, and as the seconds ticked down it looked as if the Red Bull driver was going to fend off the challengers in the field. Verstappen was on provisional pole position, but there were still a few drivers on the track.

Including Norris.

The McLaren driver delivered what he described as a “perfect” lap, a thunderous performance that snatched P1 away from his friend and rival Verstappen at the death. While Verstappen was denied pole last time out at the Canadian Grand Prix despite setting the same time as George Russell, Norris finished two hundreds ahead of his friend.

It is the second pole position of the McLaren driver’s career.

Can he translate that into a victory?

Norris said that is the “plan.”

“Of course, I can,” said Norris trackside when asked he he can translate pole position into a victory. “That’s our target. But I know it’s gonna be tough against Max, against Lewis, anyone behind. But we’re to win now.

“So, that’s my plan.”

Norris and McLaren kick off our list of winners and losers during qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix. Here are the full results, as well as some more winners and losers from a thrilling Saturday in Barcelona.

Losers: Williams

The last time Williams finished in the points at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya? That came back at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix when both Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa came across the line in the top ten. Since then, Barcelona has been a points desert for the team.

That looks to continue this weekend.

Williams has been on the back foot all week, and that continued with qualifying on Saturday. Both Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant were eliminated in Q1, and the team will face an uphill climb to try and secure points in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

With their two drivers set to start alongside each other on the back row of the grid.

When the team launched their challenger for the 2024 season in New York City in February, the talk from the team was that the FW46 was going to be a more well-rounded car than last season’s challenger. A year ago you knew where the FW45 was going to be strong, particularly at high-speed circuits with lots of straights. Entering 2024, the team was hoping to find a more complete challenger.

While they may have achieved that goal, Barcelona remains tough sledding for the team.

“It’s been a painful weekend guys … I’ll keep trying my best,” reported Sargeant following Q1.

Williams will need something even better than that on Sunday if they are going to break their points-less Barcelona streak.

Winners: Sauber

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Finally.

For the first time all season long, Sauber had a reason to work on both sides of the garage in Q2. Both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu advanced out of Q1, for the first time this year. Bottas was 13th-fastest in Q1, with Zhou right behind him in P14.

While their days ended in Q2, as both Bottas and Zhou failed to advance, it was certainly a step forward for the team during a year that has seen Sauber struggle. The year began with frustration in the pits, as races where the team demonstrated good pace were undone by lengthy pit stops and a problem with cross-threading issues on the wheel nuts of the C44.

Those issues were finally resolved, and now they have their first weekend with both cars in Q2.

Can they translate that into points? With both drivers starting just on the outside of the top ten — with Bottas in P12 and Zhou in P15 — they certainly have a shot.

Losers: VCARB

Both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda described Friday as a struggle for the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.

Saturday was not much better.

Ricciardo and Tsunoda were both eliminated in Q1, and are set to start alongside each other on the penultimate row of the grid. Ricciardo posted the 18th-fastest time in Q1, with Tsunoda just ahead of him in P17.

VCARB brought a set of upgrades to Barcelona, like many teams, and the word from the team after Friday’s session was that the upgrades were working as expected. “The main upgrade we brought here is the floor, and with these cars, it’s such a big part of development,” reported Ricciardo in the team’s post-practice report Friday. “There’s still some optimism and once we dive into it tonight, we’ll find how it’s working and better ways to set up the car around it.”

“We’re happy with the numbers coming from the upgrade, all is working well and no issues there,” described Sporting Director Alan Permane. “The focus will be on the mechanical side of the car and improving the suspension setup.”

But judging by the results Saturday, the team is still looking for answers on the setup.

Winners: Alpine

Following Friday’s two practice sessions both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly seemed surprised with the performance from Alpine. With both drivers finishing FP2 inside the top ten — and Gasly in P4 — the Alpine duo wondered if that result offered a true picture of how things stood. “To end the day with both cars in the top-10 is a little bit unexpected from where we thought we would be entering the weekend on this particular track,” said Ocon. “Obviously, we do not know what the others are doing but overall, it is a positive start to the weekend.”

Gasly described it as a bit of flattery.

“It’s been a positive Friday for us, especially Free Practice 2,” added Gasly. “The end result, finishing in fourth place, probably flatters us and it was certainly a surprise, but a pleasant surprise, and one that brings a smile to my face!”

Those pleasant surprises continued into Saturday.

Both Ocon and Gasly advanced into Q3, marking just the second time this season that both drivers lasted into the third segment of qualifying.

Gasly ended Q3 in P7, with Ocon in P9. But with Sergio Pérez between them in P8 — and facing a grid drop for a penalty handed down following the Canadian Grand Prix — Alpine enters Sunday’s Grand Prix in position for big points this weekend.

Along with perhaps some more flattery.

Losers: Aston Martin

“We do not know what we’re going to get at the start of every weekend,” reported Fernando Alonso at the start of the week, as relayed by Alex Jacques during the F1TV broadcast.

That seems to be the case at the moment with Aston Martin.

While Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll advanced out of Q2, both drivers saw their Saturday sessions end there. Alonso just missed out on Q3 and will start the Spanish Grand Prix in P11. As for Stroll, after avoiding a penalty for an incident with Lewis Hamilton in FP3 he could not avoid the drop at the end of Q2 and will start Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix in P15.

Returning to Alonso, speaking at the FIA Press Conference on Thursday the veteran driver outlined his current thoughts on the AMR24.

“About the car and the understanding: I think we have clear ideas of what we have to improve. Obviously I will not share here with everyone. I think it is quite obvious for everyone that qualifying has been our strength this year and race pace has been a little bit weak,” described Alonso on Thursday. “The straight-line speed and the DRS effect is quite strong also this year in our car but there are a lot of weaknesses as well that we are identifying now with the new package as well, so yeah I think we’re in a good place.”

That might not exactly be the case, given what we saw Saturday. Is this a track-specific issue for the team, or is something else happening at Aston Martin with their 2024 challenger?

Winners: Mercedes

F1 Grand Prix of Spain - Previews

Photo by Kym Illman/Getty Images

With all the accolades he has earned over a tremendous F1 career, Lewis Hamilton was seeking something on Saturday that was a bit outside the norm.

A start inside the top six.

Despite all the success he has enjoyed over his career, Hamilton had yet to qualify inside the top six this season. His best starting spot in a Grand Prix this year was seventh, something he had done three times: Japan, Monaco, and Canada.

Hamilton will start Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix not just inside the top six, but on the second row. A thunderous lap of his own late in Q3 saw the Mercedes driver secure P3, and with teammate George Russell qualifying fourth, the Silver Arrows have locked out the second row, putting them in position for another huge points weekend.

“I’m really happy,” shared Hamilton trackside after qualifying. “Firstly, thank you everyone. So, so happy to be here and super grateful to be up in the top three. It’s been quite a difficult year so [a] huge amount of work for me going back to the factory.

“And finally, we’re starting to see those incremental steps moving closer to the guys ahead. I didn’t expect us to be fighting for pole necessarily, but every now and then [it looks like with] little bits there and maybe we’ll be close. And so to be there, I’m just grateful.”

Hamilton also praised his teammate and believes that given their starting position, he and Russell can put some pressure on Verstappen and Norris up front.

“Yeah, we’ve made [a] huge step forwards and it’s really just down to every single individual back to the factory who’s pushing in design, pushing and making the new parts that we get to bring as early as possible to these races,” added Hamilton. “And slowly the car is crafting into a racing machine that we can hopefully fight the guys at the front.

“So, George did a great job as well today. So hopefully tomorrow we can apply pressure on the two cars ahead.”

The tremendous result for Mercedes comes at a fascinating time for the team. Not only are they on the cusp of Hamilton’s impending departure to Ferrari at the end of the season, but reports surfaced this week of an anonymous email sent to F1 journalists after the Canadian Grand Prix alleging disparate treatment between Hamilton and Russell by Mercedes. Team Principal Toto Wolff blasted that email during Friday’s FIA Press Conference, indicating that the matter had been referred to police and dismissing “conspiracy theorists and lunatics,” but this is a strange season for the team. One that began with Hamilton’s shocking announcement, and saw Mercedes begin the year on the back foot.

But recent upgrades, including a new front wing, have seen them move to the front the past few races. They are coming off their best result of the season in Montreal, and look primed for something even bigger tomorrow.

Winners: All of us

I honestly yelled.

Watching on my couch as Norris pipped Verstappen for pole position, I let out a shout in my living room … and regretted not making the trek across the pond to see this in person. But if you feel like we are witnessing a season that may go down in F1 history, you are not alone.

“This season is just delivering time and time again … this is the finest season of Formula 1 I can remember.”

Those were the words of David Coulthard in the F1TV commentary box, as Saturday’s qualifying session drew to a close. And the former F1 champion is not alone in this assessment. Take a spin through social media — a huge shoutout to my friends on F1 Threads — and you will see comment after comment about how exciting this season is, and what kind of finish we may be in store for.

When I spoke with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri following his tremendous second-place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix, the Australian driver informed me in no uncertain terms that neither championship — the Constructors’ Championship nor the Drivers’ Championship — was “done and dusted.” Yes, Red Bull remains the favorite in the Constructors’ title, and certainly Verstappen remains the favorite in the Drivers’ Championship. But neither title race has been put to bed.

Read that again, because we truly have a pair of title races upon us this season.

And while last year’s winners remain the favorites, if Red Bull and Verstappen are going to repeat as champions they will truly have earned it, as the field is throwing everything at them at the moment. Perhaps the biggest challenge to Red Bull and Verstappen came at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix when the Saturday qualifying session saw the driver pushed to the absolute limit. He answered the call that day, and throughout the rest of the season, similar challenges were few and far between.

Now? The challenges to Red Bull and Verstappen are not just happening week-to-week, they are almost happening on a lap-to-lap basis. There is almost no margin for error for Red Bull and Verstappen, and how they respond is going to be a tremendous story to follow throughout this campaign.

Whether they answer the call, or another team and/or driver delivers a stunning run to a title, will be fascinating to watch.

Buckle up.