Emotions run High in Spain as Verstappen Clashes with Other Drivers

The drive at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya yesterday was filled with drama and excitement as drivers pushed to their limits and teams tried new strategies to give themselves the best opportunity of success.

Leading up to the race, Oscar Piastri qualified for pole position ahead of his teammate Lando Norris by 0.209s which is the most dominant margin between the first and second starting grid spot of the season so far. Then late in the day on Saturday news broke that only 19 cars would participate in this race because Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll was having medical issues with his hand and his doctors advised he should sit this one out.

The race started with Piastri at pole position where he made an excellent jump off of the line and headed into the first corner uncontested as his teammate Lando Norris (who was right behind him in second place) was passed by Max Verstappen almost immediately. This meant it was Piastri, then Verstappen, then Norris in the top three. This would remain for a majority of the race as the rest of the field battled for the remaining places.

So far this season McLaren has been dominant overall but there have been brief moments where the RedBull car driven by Max has been intimidating. If this was last season, seeing Max in second place on the second lap would have only meant it was a matter of time before he overtook Oscar Piastri and finished out the race cruising in first. This season, however, is different. The field is much more competitive. Nobody knew if this was a track where the RedBull would prove more efficient than the McLarens.

There was a funny radio interaction early in the race as Mercedes driver George Russell took to the radio after being passed a few times and frustratingly claimed that others around him were “moving under braking," to which Team Principal Toto Wolff responded by telling him simply to “concentrate."

The 66 laps on the ~2.9 mile track carried on from there. One later surprising mistake was veteran Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso going into the gravel on turn 5, which is typically a move that someone with his experience wouldn't let happen.

Tensions get the best of Max

Due to an engine failure of the second Mercedes driver, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli, the safety car came back out on lap 55 out of 66, and all of the teams that still had drivers in the race decided to take this opportunity to put fresh tires onto their cars. This meant Mercedes and most of the rest of the pack put on medium compound tires, except RedBull didn't. Due to choosing a strategy where driver Max Verstappen had already stopped three times, the only tires left for him were hard compounds. This compound doesn't warm up quite as fast and is better for longer stints on the track, except now they will only have about 10 laps to finish the race. Max was pissed once he realized that he was given hard compound tires because he knew there wasn't enough time.

"Why the f*** are we... what is this tyre?" - Max Verstappen

As the cars restarted full-pace racing once the safety car went in after the wreck, Max quickly lost grip on the longest straight of the track and his tail-end almost lost control. This allowed the closely-following Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc to pass and during this, the cars came into contact going over 100mph.

Having lost speed down the straight, Russell also now was pushing Max and tried to make a pass before the Red Bull and Mercedes came into contact for the first time. Then, on the team radio, you can hear Max's team telling him to let Russell pass since they believe Max was acting unfairly on defense. Max didn't take well to this and voiced it accordingly.

About 30 seconds later, Max was seen moving over to let George pass, only to then accelerate again and ram his car into the side of Russell's. Luckily both cars took the contact well and kept going, but this was the most blatant act of hostility seen in an F1 race in months. After a few more turns Max eventually lets George pass for good but the damage and rules violation had already been done. Consequently, Max was handed a 10-second time penalty which was added to his finished race time.

Even with all of this going on, Piastri was out front putting in great lap times and crossed the line to take the win almost 2.5s before the second finished, teammate Lando Norris. Leclerc held onto third, followed by Russell and Kick Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg, who got his best race finish since 2022.

Veteran driver and multiple-time world champion Lewis Hamilton got sixth after defending against rookie Hadjar by just half a second.

Verstappen ended up finishing in 10th after his time penalty dropped him to the lowest point-offering place.

“I always give everything out there for the team and emotions can run high. You win some together, you lose some together. See you in Montreal.” - Max Verstappen on Instagram