Barcelona Grand Prix: Hamilton - Russell - Norris
Sunny. Dry. Air +31…30°C, track +50…52°C
The track in Barcelona is often referred to as the best for assessing the performance of cars. Overtaking is possible here, but the cars are so evenly matched in speed that overtaking is unlikely unless there is rain or some other special conditions.
Under the new regulations, teams had already worked in Barcelona during testing in January, but since then the cars have changed significantly, although the leaders remain the same – Mercedes and Ferrari drivers shared the front rows of the starting grid. However, Charles Leclerc was not among them – just like a week ago in Monaco, he crashed in qualifying and started only tenth.
On Friday, Lando Norris from McLaren set the best time, then Mercedes improved – on Saturday morning, George Russell set the best time, winning the qualifying session and securing his third pole of the season and tenth of his career.
Lewis Hamilton qualified second and shared the front row with his former teammate. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli and reigning champion Lando Norris from McLaren started from the second row, while the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Isaac Hadjar started from the third.
Pirelli brought a slightly softer trio of compounds than usual – C2, C3, and C4 serving as Hard, Medium, and Soft. On the abrasive asphalt of Barcelona in very hot weather, the tires wore out quickly, affecting the strategy.
Fernando Alonso had to start from the pit lane – Aston Martin replaced components of the power unit on his car.
Hamilton, Verstappen, Hülkenberg, Colapinto, Sainz, Pérez, and Ocon started on Soft. Alonso started on Hard, and the others on Medium.
At the start, Russell maintained the lead – the entire top five remained unchanged. Hadjar lost eight places, Bortoleto five, and Leclerc narrowly avoided crashing into the poorly starting Hadjar, gaining three positions.
The top ten on the second lap: Russell - Hamilton - Antonelli - Norris - Verstappen - Piastri - Leclerc - Lawson - Hülkenberg - Lindblad.
On the third lap, Hadjar overtook Sainz in the battle for 13th place.
On lap 7, Stroll stopped his car in the pits due to a gearbox failure. Leclerc nearly collided with Piastri while braking at the first corner – he avoided it, but moved ahead on lap 9.
On lap 12, Hamilton and Lawson changed tires – there was a slight delay during Liam's car service.
On lap 13, Verstappen, Colapinto, and Pérez made pit stops, on lap 14 – Norris, Hülkenberg, Ocon, and Albon, on lap 15 – Antonelli, Piastri, Gasly, Sainz.
Bottas stopped his car in the pits and retired from the race.
On lap 16, Hadjar and Bortoleto changed tires, on lap 17 – Leclerc, on lap 19 – Berman.
Alpine asked the drivers to swap positions – and on lap 20, Colapinto let Gasly through.
Berman overtook Alonso and Pérez after his pit stop.
On lap 23, Alonso made a pit stop, on lap 24 – Lindblad, on lap 27 – Hamilton, on lap 30 – Verstappen, on lap 31 – Hülkenberg and Albon.
Hülkenberg stopped in the pits and retired from the race.
On lap 33, Hadjar and Pérez changed tires, on lap 35 – Bortoleto, on lap 36 – Colapinto, Norris, and Ocon.
Antonelli was closely pressuring Russell when George was called into the pits. Piastri and Albon followed.
On lap 38, Antonelli turned into the pit lane, on lap 39, Lindblad changed tires, on lap 40 – Leclerc.
The top ten on lap 40: Hamilton - Russell - Antonelli - Norris - Verstappen - Leclerc - Piastri - Hadjar - Gasly - Colapinto.
On lap 41, Alonso stopped at the tenth corner. The race director announced a VSC mode.
Verstappen and Berman changed tires, followed by Hamilton and Gasly.
The top ten on lap 48: Hamilton - Russell - Antonelli - Norris - Verstappen - Leclerc - Piastri - Hadjar - Gasly - Colapinto.
In the final laps, Antonelli closely pressured Russell, with the drivers running just a second apart. Kimi had already received a black-and-white flag for exceeding track limits – and Norris was right behind him, also within a second.
On lap 56, Bortoleto changed tires. On lap 57, Sainz made a pit stop. Bortoleto and Sainz overtook Ocon.
On lap 60, Hadjar changed tires, on lap 61 – Ocon.
On lap 61, Antonelli overtook Russell at the first corner in the battle for second place, but half a lap later his car stopped on the track. For the second time in three races, a Mercedes power unit led to one of its drivers retiring.
Leclerc and Berman turned into the pits – and both retired.
Lewis Hamilton won the Barcelona Grand Prix, achieving his 106th career victory and his first for Ferrari.
George Russell finished second, and Lando Norris climbed to the third step of the podium. For the first time since 1968, three British drivers stood on the Formula 1 podium.
The Racing Bulls scored points with both cars for the second consecutive race.
In two weeks, the battle will continue in Spielberg.
Race results
Driver
Team
Time
Speed
Pit
1. L. Hamilton
Ferrari
1:32:28.105
199.356
3
2. G. Russell
Mercedes
+19.561
198.655
2
3. L. Norris
McLaren
+23.719
198.507
2
4. M. Verstappen
Red Bull
+40.497
197.911
3
5. O. Piastri
McLaren
+58.661
197.270
2
6. A. Hadjar
Red Bull
+1 lap
195.466
3
7. P. Gasly
Alpine
+1 lap
194.379
2
8. L. Lawson
Racing Bulls
+1 lap
193.811
2
9. A. Lindblad
Racing Bulls
+1 lap
193.609
2
10. F. Colapinto*
Alpine
+1 lap
193.892
2
11. G. Bortoleto
Audi
+2 laps
192.387
3
12. C. Sainz
Williams
+2 laps
192.346
3
13. E. Ocon
Haas
+2 laps
191.273
3
14. S. Pérez
Cadillac
+3 laps
190.024
3
15. C. Leclerc
Ferrari
+4 laps
197.838
3
16. K. Antonelli**
Mercedes
+5 laps
200.478
2
17. O. Berman
Haas
+6 laps
193.452
3
* Franco Colapinto was penalized with a 10-second addition for not slowing down enough in the yellow flag zone.
** Kimi Antonelli was penalized with a 5-second addition for repeated track limit violations.
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 1:20.122 (44 lap, 209.245 km/h)
Reasons for retirements
Driver
Team
Laps
Reason
L. Stroll
Aston Martin
5
gearbox failure
V. Bottas
Cadillac
15
mechanical issues
N. Hülkenberg
Audi
29
mechanical issues
F. Alonso
Aston Martin
37
power unit failure
A. Albon
Williams
55
mechanical issues
Championship standings: Drivers' standings
Driver
Country
Team
Points
=
1. K. Antonelli
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team
156
=
2. L. Hamilton
Scuderia Ferrari HP
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