Spanish GP takeaways: Lando laments shot at win, Hamilton back on podium

We offer our takeaways following each race weekend this year and continue the 2024 schedule with the Spanish GP.

Moments that decided the race ?

McLaren fumbles away race lead

Having a fast car doesn’t always guarantee victory, as McLaren and Lando Norris learned in Barcelona.

Even Norris, who looked dejected after the checkered flag, admitted this was a race he “should have won.” The McLaren driver wasn’t wrong, but a series of mistakes on and off the track meant settling for second behind Max Verstappen.

Problems for Norris began immediately. A poor start from pole left him in third place behind George Russell and Verstappen after the opening lap. By the time Russell pitted from second on Lap 15, Norris was already 5.5 seconds behind Verstappen. That alone could’ve been the difference in a race decided by 2.2 seconds.

Missing the opportunity to undercut Russell, McLaren opted to keep Norris out long. Finally pitting for a set of medium tires after 23 laps on soft compounds, the British driver had a six-lap advantage on Verstappen and an eight-lap edge over Russell. However, the late stop meant Norris had to battle back from fifth. And without clean air, the result was more time lost.

With his blazing speed, Norris eventually got back to second and narrowed the gap to Verstappen to just over four seconds. But Red Bull had an ace up its sleeve for its final stint, pitting Verstappen on Lap 45 for a fresh set of soft tires, a luxury McLaren didn’t have for Norris.

Not only did Norris not have a new set of softs since he used them at the start of the race, but he was also forced to pit perhaps earlier than McLaren would have hoped due to having to cover the fast-charging Lewis Hamilton. The strategy to extend was now partially compromised as Norris only had a three-lap advantage against Verstappen, who was on fresh rubber. Adding insult to injury, McLaren’s stop for its leading driver clocked in at a sluggish 3.6 seconds.

McLaren and Norris put themselves on the back foot in a race they should have controlled from the start. With the distance to Verstappen clocking in at just over two seconds at the finish line, the team in orange can only wonder how sweet victory could have tasted had it not thrown away precious seconds.

Hamilton podiums with Mercedes’ resurgence

Hamilton returned to the podium for the first time in almost eight months. Riding Mercedes’ momentum from the Canadian GP, both Hamilton and Russell fared well in qualifying, starting P3 and P4, respectively. Despite Russell jumping quickly off the starting line, Hamilton was the Silver Arrows’ victor, finishing third. It’s his first podium since the Mexican GP, and the Brit now ties Michael Schumacher for the most podiums in Spain with 12.

Hamilton knows the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya like the back of his hand, and it showed. Although his start wasn’t strong, Hamilton battled back and took full advantage of Mercedes’ upgrades. He drove aggressively with few mistakes, passing Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and Russell to secure his podium position.

Mercedes isn’t close enough to contend for either championship yet. But Russell and Hamilton have experienced a better average race finish since the outfit’s first upgrades in Miami, moving up almost three positions each. While Ferrari has slowly stumbled after Leclerc’s home victory in Monaco, Mercedes has begun to return to its competitive form with recent podiums for Russell and Hamilton.

Driver of the Day ?

Max Verstappen: Verstappen won another race in which it appeared the RB20 was nowhere close to its previous dominant form. Despite McLaren looking faster in clean air, the three-time world champion made the difference by executing everything in his control. Sublime overtakes on Norris and Russell in the opening laps gave him an early margin, which was crucial in preserving his 2.2-second win. Verstappen’s last three races have now come by a margin no bigger than four seconds, and just like in Montreal and Imola, the Red Bull driver was the difference-maker.

They said what? ??

Norris on moving into 2nd in drivers’ standings: “I don’t care what position it is, it’s the gap to first that I care about, and it’s bigger today. I’m frustrated because I didn’t just lose the race to someone, I lost it to Max, and he’s the leader of the championship. … Today, we should have won the race, and we didn’t, and those are opportunities that we can’t miss out on.”

Zak Brown on drivers’ and constructors’ championships: “The fact that we all thought this was over after the first race, I think we all got that wrong.”

Charles Leclerc on contact with Carlos Sainz: “It’s his home race, it’s a very important moment of his career. I guess he was super motivated to do something spectacular, but I probably wasn’t the right person to do that with. It’s OK. I think he will see the image and will understand that I was on the inside.”

Sainz’s rebuttal to Leclerc’s comments: “I think too many times that he complains after the race about something.”

Verstappen on rest of the field catching up: “It’s exciting (for the sport). But when I think about myself, and not the sport, I want more performance because we are not the quickest at the moment. That’s why I have to push to the end. Of course, I put myself in a position where we were comfortably ahead because of the first stint. Because if I didn’t get by Lando at the start, we would have been second today.”

Hamilton on Mercedes’ resurgence: “My Saturdays have been so bad for the last 15 races, (so) it’s good to have a clean weekend, and hopefully, this puts us in a good position to challenge in the next few races.”

What’s next?

Formula One quickly heads northeast to Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix on June 30 at 9 a.m. ET.

Verstappen has dominated the Red Bull Ring, winning four of the last six races, including last year. Leclerc claimed victory in 2022, and Valtteri Bottas won while driving for Mercedes in 2020.

Austria will feature the third of six sprint races this season.