The Grand Prix of Spain had it and gave RTL a strong TV quota on Sunday. The race was found, finally Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen delivered a veritable cockpit grid.
In your sport.de-Bebrus isolating F1 expert Christian Danner and RTL-data analyst Steffen Kosuch opened the Barcelona-Hatz, evaluate Verstappen’s autoscooter campaign and explain what Red Bull did wrong.
The Grand Prix of Spain in Barcelona usually does not exactly stand for tension. The Formula 1 race on Sunday was tough.
Okay, the double victory of the superior McLaren cars around Triumphant Oscar Piatri did not come as a surprise. The fact that Max Verstappen would miss the podium and, as tenth, took only a measly dot from Catalonia – nobody had that on the screen.
The race started for the Red Bull star. At the start, Verstappen (third in the grid) pushed with a courageous maneuver past the Lando Norris rolled off from position two and immediately put Piatri under pressure. But it was only a straw fire that fizzled out from the third round.
Piatri continuously pulled away and when Norris made steam from behind, it was clear that McLaren had significantly more performance. Red Bull reacted to this fact with a very early first pit stop and switched to a more aggressive three-stop strategy, while McLaren stayed with the conventional two-stopper.
Red Bull relies on aggressive strategy
The Red Bull strategists kept bringing Verstappen into the race through this approach. However, it was expected that McLaren would prevail thanks to his superior performance. Red Bull and Verstappen could easily take their risky strategy game – from behind neither threatened by Ferrari nor Mercede’s danger.
The mixed situation changed ten laps before the end when Kimi Antonelli set up his silver arrow with a defective drive and triggered a safety car phase.
All top cars had even more or less used soft tires for a potential stop. The problem for McLaren was that the lead over Verstappen was not enough to stay in front even if the Dutch would drive through.
Demappen upholstery on the Charles Leclerc behind him, on the other hand, would have been enough for such a “free stop”. From a McLaren perspective, it would have been conceivable to prefer the position on the route to a change on fresher tires. From a red Bull perspective, it would have been also conceivable to get Verstappen in and to blow with fresher rubbers.
However, McLaren consistently decided differently and caught Red Bull on the wrong foot. The team made Piatri and Norris in a wiper in a row, which would have opened Red Bull the chance to leave the lead outside and take the lead.
Verstappen gets wrong tires, then the wrong command
However, the bulls did not accept this offer – they also brought Verstappen to the tire service. However, the world champion only had relatively old soft rollers and new but slower hard tires in the garage.
To the surprise of all – included – Red Bull chose the hard tires. At the start of the RE, it came as it had to come: Verstappen fought with cold tires and consequently a lack of grip.
A violent crosser when accelerating out of the last curve made it possible to walk past Verstappen with a hard maneuver, but ultimately tolerated by the stewards. George Russell also wanted to benefit from the referral problems and attacked the Dutch in curve 1.
Verpappen from the silver arrow to the emergency exit and kept the nose ahead. A mistake followed Red Bulls. In order to avoid a possible punishment of the commissioners because of an advantage, Verstappen racing engineer ordered to leave Russell by – unnecessary, as it turns out afterwards.
Photo: © sport.de
That brought the world champion into rage. Although he supposedly went off the gas to leave Russell fourth – just to drive the British into the car the next moment. The Stewards ruled and imposed a ten-second penalty and three penalty points.
The consequences are known: Verstappen fell back to tenth place and only won one point. In addition, his register of sins has now been swollen to eleven penalty points. Since a racing lock takes place from twelve points, Verstappen in the coming two races (before some of the points are repaid), nothing can be omitted.
Max Verstappen is undoubtedly one of the best drivers in Formula 1 history. The ram attack against Russell once again shows that despite his extra class, he has problems keeping himself under control.
Formula 1: Hülkenberg sensational, HAMALMON Disillusioned
The profiteers were called Charles Leclerc in Barcelona, who unexpectedly made it onto the podium in Ferrari and Russell, who took out the maximum with fourth place.
Photo: © sport.de
A sensational performance offered Nico Hülkenberg in Barcelona, who, thanks to a clever journey and happy strategy, scored fat points for the battered clean team. The gratifying: Even without the shifts to the end of the race, Hülkenberg was on the points and indicated an upward trend at Sauber.
The race was disappointing again for Lewis Hamilton. Only sixth place – the record champion seems to become more perplexed and disillusioned in Ferrari.