Max Verstappen wins in Spain, now leads by 71 World Championship points

23 June 2024
By Bob Francis, Managing Editor
Go Full Throttle Racing News

BARCELONA, SPAIN — The 2024 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya shifted the strategies from the rain and tire wear concerns of Canada, to focus more on equipment reliability and hot temps. And the conditions seemed to translate well for Mercedes as both 7x F1 Champion Lewis Hamilton and George Russell qualifying P3 and P4 respectively. It was Mclaren’s Lando Norris who was fastest earning pole with Max Verstappen starting P2.

On the grid in Barcelona — Verstappen opted for used softs to start the Spanish Grand Prix (Image Credit: formula1.com)

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen overtakes Mercedes driver George Russell at the Spanish GP (Image Credit: Formula1.com)

The definitive overtake- lap 3 saw World Champion Max Verstappen wave goodbye to Russell and control the remaining 63 laps to earn a 7th win of the 10 races so far in the 2024 season. Lando Norris was named Driver of the Day, though he expressed his frustration as he crossed the line, admitting over his radio that his weak start had cost him the win.

Verstappen earned his 106th podium finish — tying him with the great Alain Prost and Fernando Alonso for fourth on the all-time list.

GFT F1 AI Driver Rankings after the Spanish GP

Go Full Throttle Formula 1 AI Driver Rankings following the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix on June 23 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (Image Credit: GFT Digital)

No change in the Top 16 GFT AI Rankings as Verstappen opens up a 71 point lead in the World Championship driver points. Our algorithms rank Leclerc P2 in overall performance metrics even though Lando Norris technically is 2nd in points, Leclerc has led more laps and has an overall higher (165.2 vs. 162.4) score based on the 8 parameters that feed our models.

Final Results from the Spanish GP

Winners quote:

“I think what made the race was the beginning,” said Verstappen after hopping out of his RB20. “I took the lead on Lap 2, and that’s where I had my buffer, then in that first stint where I could eke out that gap a little bit.

“I think after that, we had to drive quite a defensive race, you know? Lando and McLaren, they were very, very quick today, especially on deg. It seems always the last few laps of the stint, they were very, very fast.

“But then I think we did everything well, we drove quite an aggressive strategy, but luckily it paid out until the end. It was quite close until the end but very happy to win here.”

Up Next:

The next stop on the 2024 F1 calendar is the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, the second race of the European triple header.