What the teams said – Race day at the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix ...

4 hours ago

It wasn’t Verstappen’s easiest victory of the season, but the important thing is the Dutchman won again to extend his lead in the championship despite arguably not having the fastest car. He managed to beat Norris off the line, but was himself overtaken by a rapid Russell. Verstappen was able to get back past the Mercedes man on Lap 3 and that made his race, as he extended his lead to give himself enough of a cushion late on to fend off a charging Norris. As for Perez, he started 11th and had to work hard for his points, three-stopping and overtaking multiple cars on track for what was probably the best position he could recover to.

READ MORE: Verstappen pinpoints moment that ‘made my race’ after beating Norris to Spanish GP win

Max Verstappen, 1st

“We executed everything really well today and I am really pleased to win here in Barcelona. I managed to get ahead in lap two, which ultimately made my race, and the Team did a great job as we were aggressive with the strategy and made all of the right calls. After we overtook and led the race we had to take quite a defensive strategy and really push to the end. We lacked a bit of pace and McLaren were better on the tyres than us today, so that is something that we need to look at and aim to improve on. I needed to try and push a bit more as Lando was pushing full out behind to try to catch me. We need to ultimately maximise our performance and manage the tyres as best we can. That said, it was great to bring it home with a win and as a Team we operated really well today. We were really strong, didn’t make any mistakes and the Team also achieved the fastest pit stop this year too, which was great to see. So a strong weekend overall!"

Sergio Perez, 8th

“We struggled a little bit with the pace today and it was super hard to pass anyone on that first stint, especially in the dirty air, I was managing my tyres and in a DRS train. I think that ultimately compromised our race and we had some balance issues on the soft tyre, which made things harder than predicted. We switched to a three-stop strategy and that meant we managed to save, what I believed was the maximum today, given our starting position. Our Saturday was the main problem, and I am pretty disappointed because we haven’t been able to maximise the potential in the car this weekend, at least on my side, I think Max did a tremendous job today to come away with the win. I have made good learnings this weekend for the coming weeks, I am hopeful we can be more competitive and come back strong in Austria. I need to help deliver perfect weekends for the Team because it is going to be a very competitive season."

Christian Horner, Team Principal

"Max drove a brilliant race today, and strategically we got it just right. The first lap was crucial with the start being one element of it, but Max also needed to overtake the Mercedes at the right moment and then quickly get the tyres under control which is very difficult under pressure. Checo was on a three stop strategy today and he executed a tricky race with good overtakes to secure points, so should take some confidence away from the weekend. It was a very exciting race with hard, fair racing and small margins. McLaren are doing a great job, Ferrari aren’t far away and Mercedes have made progress as well, but we’re just keeping our nose ahead and it’s important that we keep pushing because there are still a lot more races to go."

Norris had a bad getaway from pole, dropping to third. Bottled up behind Russell, that cost Norris his race as it enabled Verstappen to build his lead. Norris ran a very long first stint so he had much fresher tyres to close the gap in the second stint, but it wasn’t enough and he wound up trailing Verstappen home by just two seconds despite believing he had the quickest car out there. As for Piastri, he also ran a long opening stint and with fresher tyres, he was able to overtake both Alpine cars on track to climb up to seventh at the flag.

READ MORE: Norris claims he ‘should have won’ Spanish GP after tardy race start ‘ruined everything’

Lando Norris, 2nd

"A frustrating start, simple as that. I lost a little bit to Max, he wasn’t completely alongside but with George on the outside, I didn’t have room to manoeuvre and that had me over. It’s disappointing, but there are still a lot of positives to take away from Barcelona. We come away with a lot of points and the car was amazing today, I think we were the quickest out there, so a big thanks to the entire team for their efforts throughout the weekend.

"We’re now focusing on Austria and Silverstone, two of my favourite circuits and tracks where we have a good record, so I’m excited. We’re in a good spot and doing well each week, I just need to tidy up a few little bits in the upcoming races."

Oscar Piastri, 7th

"P7 rounds off a tough weekend. I think the race today was a positive to take away, but overall, a challenging few days in Spain. Obviously, Qualifying was the biggest frustration and made things very difficult going into the race. I think we did some good things on strategy, trying to pull ourselves up but ultimately didn’t quite have the pace this weekend but we’ll go again next week in Austria."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

"When you start from pole position gained on merit, it’s always a little disappointing not being able to convert it into a race win, but actually, the race today was decided by some details, in particular the fact that we couldn’t keep the first position at the first corner. But Lando was careful, and there was not much we could do with Russell gaining through the slipstream and Verstappen having the inside into corner one.

"From there, we lost a bit of time in the first stint, but actually, thanks to the strong pace of the car and a very good strategy, we recovered most of this time, and we were close to Max once again at the end of the race. On Oscar’s side, it’s good that we could recover some of the positions and score important points for the team in our quest in the Championship.

"I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the teams, the FIA, F1 and the local services that showed a great sense of support and gave their assistance when we lost access to the Team Hub during the race weekend. That was very much appreciated and showed a strong sense of community, which I would like to applaud and remark."

Contrasting starts at Mercedes, with Russell getting such a good launch he was able to take the lead, while Hamilton went backwards. That left Russell as the lead car once Verstappen had made his way past, and the team therefore pitted him first. Hamilton lost out on the undercut to Sainz and had to fight hard to get back past the Ferrari man, with the team then splitting strategies in the final stint – putting Russell on hards and Hamilton on softs. In the end, it worked out for Hamilton, who had better tyres to catch and overtake his team mate for the final podium place.

READ MORE: Hamilton hails ‘the best weekend I’ve had all year’ after Barcelona podium as he defends Sainz lunge

Lewis Hamilton, 3rd

"It’s been a really great weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium so I’m very happy! We’re not quite there yet but we’ve taken a huge step in recent races. We didn’t quite have the pace to fight with the two guys ahead of us but, if we can deliver more consistently like this, then we will be in a strong position. We are on our way to catching those guys and that is fantastic.

"I had a really bad start, which was unfortunate. The race may have been slightly different if I had got off the line better, but ultimately, I think P3 was the maximum today. I was pleased with my move on Sainz too. I gave him enough room and we both made it through the corner. It was an important move for my race, so I was glad to get it done. It’s now on to Austria and we’re looking forward to it."

George Russell, 4th

"There were a few things that went against us today, unfortunately. We had a slow first pit stop, and then the Hard tyre didn’t feel great in the final stint. Nevertheless, as a team our aim was to maximise what we could achieve today, and we did that with P3 and P4. Lewis drove a great race today and we take away the huge positives from what have been a very promising last couple of races.

"I was dreaming of making a move like I did into turn one last night. I didn’t think it would quite come to fruition in the way that it did! I remember Fernando (Alonso) making a similar start in 2013. We had a headwind so I knew I could brake quite late. It was a very satisfying move and felt good to lead a race again. Unfortunately, Max (Verstappen) was too fast for us today, as was Lando. But two podiums in two races is very encouraging as we head to Austria."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"We can take a lot of positives away from today. We have taken several steps forward in the previous few races and it is good to see these confirmed here in Spain. We are not quite there yet, and we have to more to do to catch those ahead. Nevertheless, we are on a positive development trajectory, and it feels good to be back in the game.

"It was also fantastic to pull off two of the best overtakes I’ve seen in a long time. George made a mega start and braked late to take the lead. Lewis’s overtake on Sainz meanwhile was great racing and an important moment for his race. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to enjoy a Grand Prix podium with Lewis, so it was fantastic to see him up there. We’re now looking forward to the next two races in the triple-header and building on the momentum we are establishing."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"It's been a solid weekend from the drivers and the whole team. We felt like we could have been closer to pole than we were yesterday, but ultimately, we didn't have enough pace to challenge Max (Verstappen) and Lando (Norris) today. Nevertheless, it was good to get on the podium with Lewis. With George just behind in fourth, that completed a decent points haul for us.

"George had a great start and made a very impressive move on the brakes around the outside iunto turn one. Lewis’s start wasn’t quite as good, but he did a good job to recover around turns one and two to get back to fourth. It was evident fairly on that we were having to push pretty hard to not fall back from Verstappen and that meant we had to make our pit stops a little earlier than planned. By the time we got into the second stint, our focus was on ensuring we beat the Ferraris. Lewis was able to do that comfortably in the end and managed his tyres well in the final stint to do the same. We're encouraged by the fact the car has worked well at Montreal and here in Barcelona. We need to find more speed to get right to the front but we are working hard on that and should be able to continue to close that gap with further developments to come."

Ferrari opted to split their strategies today, leaving Leclerc out for a much longer first stint and bringing Sainz in to cover off the Mercedes pair. It almost worked for the Spaniard, who did get ahead of Hamilton. But then the team put Sainz on the hard compound for his final stint, and he lost out to Hamilton and Leclerc who were both on the softs, which was the better strategy. The drivers finished where they started, just lacking the pace to take the fight to the Silver Arrows in Spain and with an intra-team spat as well, there will be an interesting debrief down at the Scuderia.

Charles Leclerc, 5th

"It was tight today and we were just a lap short of fighting for P4, but our competitors were still ahead in terms of pace. Regarding our strategy, I think we did well to offset ourselves from the cars around us. We maybe lost some time between our two cars at the beginning of the race, but going forward we will focus on our race pace extracting the maximum from our package at the next race."

Carlos Sainz, 6th

"It was a difficult race but we gave it our best. Stopping early and finishing the race on the Hard tyre didn’t turn out to be the optimal strategy today, but we only know this with hindsight after the chequered flag. In any case, we were lacking a bit of pace this weekend in general and we need to work to improve for next weekend in Austria.

"A massive thank you goes to every single fan that came to the track today and also to those who followed and supported us from home. A home race for a driver is always special and Barcelona is no exception for me."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"We started five and six and ended five and six and the conclusion I draw from this is that we must do a better job in qualifying. We need to make a small step forward so that we don’t start behind, as this pushes you into taking risks with the strategy. Yesterday the gap to those in front was about two tenths, today it was similar and if you look at it over the race distance then that was still the same gap.

"As for the contact between our drivers, it was very light and I don’t think it cost us anything. What cost us more is that after our stops, we came out behind some cars, it was very tight and we lost two or three seconds. With Carlos we wanted to cover Russell, which is why we had to go Medium-Hard as we pitted earlier. With Charles the plan was to extend the stint to go a bit longer which is why we were able to try the Softs.

"With such small gaps between the teams, everything can change: there are four teams in two to two and a half tenths so from track to track the pecking order can change. Next week we race in Austria where we will have another Sprint and I expect the track layout there will suit us better."

With two cars starting in the top 10, Alpine had high hopes of points and they scored with both. Gasly picked up a place at the start which helped although he then lost time with a slow pit stop. He also managed to hold a faster Piastri at bay in the middle stint too. He did lose out to the Australian in the final stint, with Perez also recovering back through late on but considering where they started the season, ninth and P10 is a strong result for Alpine who move ahead of Haas in the championship.

Esteban Ocon, 10th

“It was good to get both cars in the points for a second consecutive Grand Prix. It was a challenging race for us with car balance and some tricky stints but nevertheless we managed to bring the car home inside the top ten again and that’s satisfying. It was close with Nico [Hülkenberg] at the end but we were able to maintain pace and grab the final point on merit on track. We have things to analyse such as why the car felt harder to drive in race conditions as I was sliding quite a lot. Even so, we were much more competitive this weekend and we’ve come out of it with a good reward. We will aim to continue our points run in Austria next weekend where we have two opportunities to score points with the Sprint.”

Pierre Gasly, 9th

“That was our best race of the season so far as a team, so on that front, I am very happy with today. We had a strong Qualifying on Saturday, which set us up for a good result in ninth place today. We executed the race well with the two-stop strategy and managed each stint well. We almost had eighth place and only missed out on the last lap but I gave it my all. Even so, I’m happy with such a strong race where we battled two fast cars – the McLaren early on and then the Red Bull at the end – so that’s positive for us. We must understand why the package was strong here and take these learnings going forward. We are progressing in a good direction, that’s three points scoring finishes in a row, and we have to keep that going!”

Bruno Famin, Team Principal

“It’s pleasing to have again both cars in the points here in Spain and to score at the last three Grands Prix as a team. It’s a positive trend, which we must keep continuing. We were better at this track and we must analyse the reasons why in order to keep improving our overall package. The race was a tough two-stop for both cars. The two drivers did a good job, especially in tyre, energy, and fuel management. Next up is the Sprint weekend in Austria where we aim to continue our positive run inside the points.”

Not to be for Alonso on home soil. A difficult start saw him run wide and onto an escape road, costing him a handful of places. The team also opted to put both drivers onto hards late on, but Alonso’s were fresher than Stroll’s and that enabled the Spaniard to finish ahead of his team mate on what was a pretty disappointing day for the team.

Fernando Alonso, 12th

“It was disappointing not to score any points this weekend in front of the home fans. The whole weekend we have struggled with our pace, and we suffered with high tyre degradation in today's race. It's likely to be tough over the next few race weekends, but we will get our heads down, work even harder and look to improve. We have Austria next weekend and then the team's home race at Silverstone.”

Lance Stroll, 14th

“We knew today was going to be a challenge, but it was still a tough race out there. We went for the two-stop strategy and, as expected, a lot of the race was spent managing tyre degradation. We weren't competitive enough this weekend, so we have work to do ahead of Austria to find some more performance.”

Mike Krack, Team Principal

“A frustrating weekend for the team but not an entirely unexpected one. It was a race to forget at a track which exposed our known weaknesses. We understand the areas to remedy but we must be patient as they won't come overnight. Lance and Fernando did the best with what we gave them today. I would like to thank the fans support we've had this week and rest assured we are working hard to bring more performance.”

Haas managed to pick up penalties for both drivers, Magnussen penalised for a false start while Hulkenberg was caught speeding in the pit lane. The German’s penalty was the more important, as it hampered his chances of chasing down Ocon for P10 and a final championship point. He gave up that fight late on, which was dispiriting considering he had had a very strong start and looked good in the early stages.

HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from a thrilling Spanish Grand Prix as Verstappen beats Norris and Hamilton

Nico Hulkenberg, 11th

“All in all, it was a more positive than negative Sunday for us. We had pretty good competitive pace throughout the race, so that makes me happy. It’s encouraging for the next couple of weeks and months. I enjoyed the race, but it was missing a little bit, ultimately, we needed a better qualifying yesterday and to start further ahead to have a chance at points. We need to optimize our qualifying in the next couple of races.”

Kevin Magnussen, 17th

“Unfortunately, I got that jump start and that’s on me of course. I had that impulse and let it go a little bit, so we got the penalty, and we had a slow stop also, so it’s just been a tough day. It’s not been a great weekend here so hopefully we can do better in Austria.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“Overall, I think in terms of performance there’s lots of positives, and I think we raced stronger than I anticipated. Of course, P11 is kind of the worst place to finish, just being outside of the points, so that’s pretty frustrating. Nico had a good start and Nico’s pace in the first stint was strong – he stayed in front of the Red Bull – so that was good. On the second stint with the medium tyre, neither driver was happy, but again Nico’s pace was pretty decent, but on the last stint he was on the hard unfortunately because he had a five-second time penalty for speeding. We knew we had to push to catch Ocon, and then create a five-second gap, and that’s not great for tyres. Considering all of that, he raced very well and showed the performance of the car – decent but just not good enough. From Kevin’s side, because of his starting position, he lost a lot of time in traffic and then when the tyre is on the edge, especially in that second stint, and you get overtaken, it’s very difficult. Kevin’s third stint was mainly spent in traffic also, and he couldn’t maximise the potential of the car.”

Kick Sauber split strategies out there, Bottas using two sets of softs with Zhou utilizing the softs and mediums before both switched to the hard C1 compound. They had to pit earlier than planned, thanks to high tyre degradation, hence the decision to use the hards late on. But with everyone finishing, it was difficult for both cars that were caught up in DRS trains for much of the afternoon.

Valtteri Bottas, 16th

“We opted to split strategies today and went for an aggressive one. The feeling on the soft compound was quite okay at first, as we thought that could have been today's best tyre, but unfortunately that turned out not to be the case, as they quickly began to degrade. We were forced to an early stop, and the last stint ended up being too long – as I also had to do some tyre management and couldn’t make use of our real pace. As a positive to bring home from this weekend, our overall performance this weekend seemed to be in a better place compared to recent events, as seen with Zhou, who ended up in thirteenth place – which is good to see. We made some decent progress this weekend, but we still need to do more. Looking ahead to Austria, the track layout will be different, but we’ll hopefully be able to be in the mix again with a good qualifying performance: it’s going to be a Sprint event, so it’ll be important to get the feeling right from the start.”

Zhou Guanyu, 13th

“We had a good race today especially compared to the last couple of events. We were quite strong for most of the day – I hadn’t expected to be fighting with the Haas – and the feeling is that we have definitely made a step forward. The only blot is lap one, where I tried to go on the outside to gain some places but nearly lost it on the gravel: still, we were able to recover and I feel that, on a race where everyone finished, P13 was the most we could get. I am happy we made a step forward, it feels like a bit of a breakthrough, not perhaps in terms of results but in terms of feeling with the car: I felt a lot more comfortable; I could put the car where I wanted and control it as I used to. It’s a big step and it gives us all motivation to keep working and closing the gap. Hopefully, we can continue on this trajectory and be back in the points soon. I think we are much closer to where we were at the start of the season, when we were near the top of the midfield, so I’ll be looking forward to being back on track in Austria.”

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative

“Today’s conditions were a bit of a challenge for all competitors, as the track conditions changed dramatically from Friday, making all references on race simulations moot. Tyre degradation remained a question mark and this created some interesting scenarios for the strategy: we tried our best to support our drivers and allow them to make up ground with two different plans, swapping their places to give them the best fighting chance. However, Valtteri’s second stint on softs saw more degradation than we expected, which meant we had to call him in for an earlier stop, and that made his final stint on hard tyres too long, his race pace on those tyres not allowing him to challenge those on mediums. Zhou, starting in 15th, executed a very good race, and was lapping strongly until the end of the day, even though Alonso turned out too hard to keep behind. We felt we made a step forward in qualifying, but there’s still something to find on Sunday to be as competitive as we need to be to score points, even in a race with no retirements, Safety Cars or anything that reshuffles the pack. Of course, we finished ahead of Williams and RB, but this cannot be our objective: being in the top ten is. We need to keep improving in all fields from Austria already, as there will be opportunities to be taken, and we need to be the ones doing that.”

Starting so far back, points were always going to be difficult to achieve for RB and so it proved. Tsunoda was running ahead of his team mate thanks to a better start, but he was handed a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane which dropped him back. Ricciardo was the man on the move late on, pulling off overtakes on Magnussen and Bottas but, that entertainment aside, it was a difficult race for the team who will hope this was a blip rather than a sign of things to come.

FACTS AND STATS: Hamilton makes it 18 seasons in a row with a podium as Sainz maintains points-scoring home record

Daniel Ricciardo, 15th

“It’s obviously disappointing finishing in P15, but I’m happy with my race and how we managed it as a team with the two stops. I think yesterday I just missed a touch in qualifying, but honestly, today I feel like I maximised it with a good race. We managed the tyres and pushed when we needed to, so unfortunately, I think we just didn’t have more to show this weekend. There’s certainly lots to learn from weekends like this. We take a few little positives and a few more things to work on because we seem to be missing something with the new package. It’s a quick turnaround, so we’ll work on it tonight, trying to understand more in preparation for Austria next week.”

Yuki Tsunoda, 19th

“It was a tough race, in which I struggled. The handling of the car was definitely not easy, and I did not feel as comfortable as I normally do. Something wasn’t quite right, and we'll analyse everything that happened to understand what did not work well and come back stronger in Austria.”

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“We came here with high hopes for the upgrades that everyone back in the factory has worked so hard to design and produce as part of our aggressive development strategy. Unfortunately, right from the start of Free Practice we were lacking pace in every session. There is no point denying this was a poor weekend for us and although the gaps were very small, we’re not going to make excuses for the fact we just weren’t competitive. Given our starting positions, it would have required some unusual circumstances – rain, a safety car – but the race was pretty linear and while both drivers did their best, we leave Spain with nothing to show for our efforts.

“Looking at the positives, we did a lot of tests across both cars to acquire as much data as possible. Now, our whole group faces a stern test to try and make some progress in the very few days available until we are back on track at the Red Bull Ring. It’s a very long season, so there are bound to be some tough weekends. We just have to put this one behind us, we must not get downhearted but instead, look ahead and focus on fighting back immediately in a few days’ time in Austria.”

Jody Egginton, Technical Director

“With the qualifying positions we had, we knew that it would be difficult to score points and we needed to be ready to try something different if the race provided the opportunity, but unfortunately it did not. Daniel's pace and degradation on the medium compound in his middle stint was reasonable and he was able to close on the group of cars ahead including Alonso, Stroll and Bottas. However, some blue flags immediately after his second stop cost him some time and he lost touch with this group for a while. Although his pace was comparable, we could not get back onto this pack. Yuki was not happy with the balance of his car and although the guys worked hard to try and improve this via tools and flap adjustments, it was still difficult. We need to have a good look over the car when it's out of Parc fermé and see if we can find anything obvious. Looking at the bigger picture from this weekend, we have a lot of analysis to complete ahead of Austria next weekend in order to understand in more detail why we have underperformed here in Barcelona relative to our expectations and our general level of performance up to this point in the season. We’ll then apply this learning to our preparations for Austria.”

Albon started from the pit lane after changing some PU components overnight, while Sargeant lined up P19 after his three-place grid drop for impeding in qualifying. Thus, it was always going to be an uphill battle for Williams in Barcelona. Albon was the only driver to gamble on a medium tyre start, but he didn’t help his chances by running through the gravel late on. They came home towards the back of the field, and will be happy they can swiftly put this race behind them.

Alex Albon, 18th

"We wanted more this weekend. On the one hand, the car has made a huge step forward compared to last year and we made the right choices throughout the race.

"At the same time, this track is a bit of reality check. On a more traditional track, our lack of downforce and extra weight combined with high winds and track temperatures held us back. With the midfield getting stronger, it's clear we've got work to do. Looking ahead, Austria and Silverstone should suit us much more."

Logan Sargeant, 20th

"That was one of the toughest races of the year. The degradation was accumulating so quickly that it felt like I was managing the tyre from lap one on every stint. It’s been a difficult weekend for the team. Like last year, we struggled in Barcelona but had strong performances in Austria and Silverstone, so we’ll look to move on and bounce back at the remaining races of this triple-header."

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director

"We had a very difficult afternoon as we lacked the pace to be able to fight for a good finish. We will work hard to understand why we lacked pace as some of the Free Practice sessions showed signs of improvement in comparison to last year. The track was hotter than anticipated and the wind played a part in our low performance.

"From tomorrow onwards, we will be turning our focus towards Spielberg as it should be a track that suits us better. It’s very tight in the midfield and every point counts, so we’ll have to be on top of our game in every race until the end of the year."

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“It was a very intense and at times spectacular race and here I’m thinking of Russell’s incredible start, similar to Alonso’s from 2011, and the duels between the aforementioned George, first with Max and then with Lando. The race among the leaders was like a game of chess between the four teams who filled the top eight places, with the moves made up of strategy choices and tyre management. However, from our side it was actually a very linear race. All three compounds performed as expected, both in terms of wear and degradation, despite the fact temperatures were significantly higher than was predicted yesterday. The same can be said for the strategies, when it came to tyre usage and the pit stop windows. Soft and Medium delivered the best performance, while despite the higher temperatures, the Hard struggled a bit in terms of overall performance, while not offering a decisive advantage when it came to degradation.”