F1 Results, Updated Points: Champ Back on Top as Verstappen Wins Spanish Grand Prix

Max Verstappen’s third victory of the Formula 1 season and 24th win of his career propelled him to Formula 1’s title lead for the first time in 2022 at the expense of Charles Leclerc. Autoweek breaks down the main points from the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen Takes the Lead

Verstappen’s 24th career victory, six years removed from his maiden victory at the same venue, was not the most straightforward one.

A rare mistake during the first stint relegated Verstappen from fourth to second before an erratic (Drag Reduction System) DRS thwarted his efforts to overhaul Mercedes’ George Russell. The device, which had malfunctioned during qualifying, kept either not opening or only briefly opening before slamming shut. That frustrated Verstappen, leading to a series of angry exchanges with the pit wall, as remedies were sought.

Leclerc’s demise and a switch to a three-stop strategy in the searing Spanish heat—with air temperature nearing 100 degrees—meant the outlook became swiftly rosier. Verstappen used his sizeable tire advantage to pass Russell while his path to the lead was facilitated by team orders to teammate Sergio Perez. Verstappen had quipped after his early exit in Australia that he could not even think about the championship.

Just three rounds and six weeks later he has erased a 45-point deficit and now leads the way.

“It was a difficult beginning but a good end,” said Verstappen. “I went off in turn four, I completely lost the rear. I lost a few positions through that and as soon as I wanted to attack, my DRS stopped working. It was upsetting at the time but then I calmed myself down and focused on the bigger picture. We are on a good trajectory and we can be proud of that as a team, but as you can see, some things are fragile and we need to keep on working hard, we have to be on top of everything.”

It was a Red Bull 1-2 for the second time in three races but in the immediacy Perez was a little miffed. Having been compliant in not battling Verstappen he was irritated at not being given track position during the moments when he had a tire advantage.

“I think the problem for any driver is that if they don’t have the clear overview of a strategy or race plan in front of them, it is always going to be emotive to give up a lead,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “But he played very much a team game, I think he understood clearly that it wasn’t a like for like fight because the pace delta between the strategies was so great that from a team point of view it just didn’t make any sense, which is why we didn’t let the drivers get into a fight today.”

It means Red Bull now leads the Constructors’ Championship for the first time in 2022, 26 clear of Ferrari.

“The competitors are very strong,” warned Horner. “We’ve had our moments, but every race that we’ve won, bar this one, has been on the absolute limit. I think that Max is driving extremely well, Checo is doing a great job, but I expect it to be a very tight competition throughout the season.”

So Much for Ferrari’s Championship Lead

The picture for Leclerc was looking very rosy one-third of the way into Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Leclerc mastered the start from pole positions, kept his tires operating effectively, and built a strong lead as his main rival made a mistake. Then, as he accelerated up the hill on lap 27… clonk. An instant power unit failure robbed Leclerc’s Ferrari of speed and he was forced to tour around to the pits to retire.

It was reminiscent of years gone by—the TV camera suddenly cutting to a slowing race leader. Leclerc had been on course to triumph and it was a failure that robbed him not only of victory but also the title lead for the first time in 2022. After taking 71 points across the opening three events, Leclerc has added only 33 points in the three events since, due to a combination of errors, reliability setbacks and Red Bull’s pace.

“So far this year, the team has been doing an incredible job in terms of reliability,” said Leclerc. “Of course this one hurts, because we were in front all weekend and worked really well. I know that things like this can happen sometimes and in moments like these, it is important to look at the positives. Our pace was very strong in qualifying and in the race and the feeling in the car was really good.

"We made progress in terms of tire management, which is something that has been a weakness in the past few races. So it’s a shame and I’m disappointed that we lost the opportunity to score a lot of points, but the season is still long and we know we have the potential.”

It was a doubly bad day for Ferrari given the travails of Carlos Sainz. Running third, Sainz made an unforced error early on into turn 4 and spun through the gravel, which caused damage to his floor. Sainz recovered from 11th to fourth but more points went begging for the Spaniard, and for Ferrari, with another mistake.

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto was nonetheless eager to point to the positives rather than dwell on the setbacks.

“I said that after the first six races, we would be able to assess the performance levels and hierarchy among the teams and today, we can say that we have built a good car and we have done a fine job of developing it,” he said. “The Barcelona track is demanding in many ways and it has usually been something of a bogey circuit for us, but the F1-75 was the quickest car on track yesterday and today, Charles was comfortably in the lead, running at a very good race pace.”