 ©RedBull media Max Verstappen and Redbull come out on top in the battle of tyre strategies to win the Spanish grand prix. McLaren had a harder day than expected after a poor start from Lando Norris lost him the lead, setting them back to plan B. Hamilton greets the podium for the first time since Mexico in October. 66 smooth sailing laps with no yellow flags, and no weather condition change of 42 degrees Celsius track temp allowed for an all-out on track battle.
Lights out in Barcelona as all bar one of the 20 drivers started on soft tyres, Alex Albon on mediums started in the pitlane after some last minute changes to his power unit. Lando Norris started on a fresh set of softs but it wasn’t enough as he gets swallowed by Verstappen and Russell by turn one, leaving the Mercedes to lead the first laps of the race. Further down the pack home drivers Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso missed out on crucial spaces gained during a race start as Sainz stayed in 6th while Alonso dropped back by two from 10th to 12th after being squeezed into the escape road.  ©Scuderia Ferrari media Hulkenberg had one of the best starts moving up three to put himself in the points, unlike his teammate, Magnussen, who received a 5 second penalty for a false start. Once DRS opened it wasn’t long before max was able to show off his overtaking skills as he slipped past Russell. The action started to heat up as Tsunoda and Zhou make the first move going into the pits for mediums on lap 10, but after messing up the start Norris attempts to do a longer stint on his softs than originally planned. Mercedes reacting to McLarens radio games sends Russell into the pit from p2 allowing Lando clear air ahead of him to chase now Verstappen in the race lead. In the pits a minor inconvenience for Russell as his engineers struggle to fit his rear right tyre resulting in a 5.3s pit stop in a race where every second counts, coming out on top after leaving the pit side by side with Sainz who managed a 2.2s Redbull the kings of pitstops showing off with a 1.9s pit which with only a 2.219s win ahead of Norris made all the difference.  ©HAAS F1 Media Leclerc becomes the only man not to pit after Lando went into to the pit on lap 24, 6 laps after Verstappen and Hamilton, after the Woking team brought Piastri in two laps earlier. Norris coming out the pit with mediums six laps fresher than Verstappen who was back in the lead, the silver arrows and Sainz between the pair. With in less than 10 laps Norris was able to pick off Sainz and Hamilton ready to push for Russell who was starting to slow. Back down the order Hulkenberg and Tsunoda received +5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Hulkenberg’s penalty allowing Ocon breathing room as the Alpines were on track for a double points finish, battling Checo who was crawling up the points and now battling Gasly for eighth. With 15 laps to go Hamilton overtakes his teammate, who was struggling to make ground on Norris with his hard tyres, to get himself up into podium sitting position. And soon enough Leclerc was eating into the gap Russell once had on the Ferrari. After pitting on lap 48 Lando has managed to get with in 5s of Verstappen with 10 laps to go, reducing the gap with ever lap but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be for the Brit as he ran out of laps just 2.219s shy of Verstappen. Looks like Redbull starting with used softs and finishing on the fresh set paid off.
 ©RedBull media Bronwen Jones Writer @ F1 Journal 
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