Why you should be excited about the Spanish Grand Prix
Max Verstappen (RB) trails Charles Leclerc (Fer) by 19 points as F1 heads to Barcelona
After a difficult start to the season for Max Verstappen, with two DNFs in Bahrain and Australia due to reliability issues, Red Bull has seemed to recover nicely by winning three of the first five races. Despite this, Charles Leclerc has had more consistent race finishes and leads the drivers’ championship by 19 points.
In the last two races at Imola and Miami, the RB18 seems to have the tire degradation advantage, which allowed Verstappen to overtake Leclerc and still have the grip to keep him behind.
The tension is building at Mercedes between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, after a series of disappointing finishes for the latter driver and 7-time World Champion. Russell is leading Hamilton in the championship by 23 points, with Russell finishing just ahead in 5th because of his strategy gamble in Miami.
By expecting a late-race incident — I mean Latifi is on the grid — Russell stayed out on hard tires and gained an advantage when he pitted for new tires under the safety car; brought out by the collision between Norris and Gasly. Hamilton was complaining to the engineers that they didn’t choose the best strategy for him; maybe he will gamble in Barcelona as Russell did in Miami.
Hamilton has already expressed that his championship aspirations are likely out of reach at this point in the season, but that he will keep pushing.
He had been a championship protagonist for eight years, but now he is driving a difficult car that isn’t as dominant. Russell has posted good results considering Mercedes's struggles, so Hamilton will be looking at the Spanish GP to come back at his young rival teammate.
I am excited to see how the experienced drivers fare this upcoming weekend. Two-time champion Fernando Alonso has raced at the Circuit to Barcelona-Catalunya 18 times in F1, and twice he crossed the line first. He will be exciting to watch as he uses his experience and competitive midfield car to slice through the field.
Lewis Hamilton has won at this track 6 times, and Sebastien Vettel also has experience racing here, but Hamilton’s car doesn’t seem to be able to compete for a win, and the Aston Martin of Vettel has been disappointing.
Ferrari driver and Spanish native, Carlos Sainz, will be feeling tremendous pressure this weekend for results in front of home fans in competitive machinery. He has yet to beat his teammate Leclerc, which will be weighing on his mind going into Spain and then Monaco.
The track has two DRS zones, so hopefully, there will be some great overtaking moments. Perhaps we could see the two Mercedes collect each other at Turn #4 like in 2016, or contact between Leclerc and Verstappen.
For last year’s champion, Max Verstappen, to take the lead back from Charles Leclerc, he would need to win the race and hope that his rival finish 7th or worse. Leclerc will be hoping that Ferrari has solved the tire degradation issues, and he will be looking to limit the damage by qualifying on the pole, jumping Max on the start, praying for no safety car, and winning the race.
Should they finish P1 and P2, Leclerc on top, then his lead would grow to 26 points, vice versa, and Verstappen shrinks the lead to 12 points going into Monaco. The forecast remains dry in Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain. It should be a very exciting race.
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