F1 standings

Max Verstappen took over the lead in the world championship from Charles Leclerc in Spain. The Dutchman took his fourth victory of the season.

However, with Leclerc dropping out with engine problems, Verstappen still managed to take the win and with it the lead in the championship. For a moment it looked like Charles Leclerc was going to do good business in the world championship during the Spanish Grand Prix. The Monegasque was in the lead with Verstappen only in fourth place after a spin. Teammate Sergio Perez also did good business with his second place and comes considerably closer to Leclerc.

Verstappen survives early spin to win in Barcelona while Hamilton delivers race of the day following an early bump with Magnussen.

And Mercedes were left to wonder what might have been from a race weekend where their car performed better than it has all year. By the midway point in the race Verstappen was in control for the first time all weekend. “In those moments I believe there’s nothing I can do but look at the positives – and there are plenty from this weekend. So much so that when the Monegasque pitted on lap 22 – with a 2.2-second stop time – he was comfortably five seconds ahead of the chasing Russell. Verstappen spent multiple laps hunting down Russell but a problematic DRS in the Red Bull car meant he couldn’t take the slower Mercedes. “We can’t even make the f**king DRS work! But the grand prix opened up for the Dutchman when leader Leclerc suffered a power failure to limp out midway through.

Max Verstappen made it three F1 victories in a row after taking the chequered flag at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

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Max Verstappen took the lead of the Formula One Drivers' Championship after leading a Red Bull one-two in the Spanish Grand Prix.

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Max Verstappen won an action-packed 2022 Spanish Grand Prix as pole-sitter Charles Leclerc retired from a comfortable lead. Sergio Perez took second place ...

The Mercedes emerged ahead of the Red Bull in the battle for third, and on Lap 16 Verstappen was right on Russell’s tail. But on Lap 49, Perez complied – Verstappen thanking him – before skating away to win by 13.072s and retake the championship lead. Of course, I was in the train and I tried to pass but my DRS was not always working, so that made it very tough but we managed, due to the strategy, to get ahead again and do our own race and eventually win the race. As a result, Sainz re-took P4 having passed not only Hamilton (on Lap 65) but Bottas (on Lap 57, along with Hamilton). The following lap began with Verstappen therefore attacking Russell for the lead, Perez vying for a starring role just behind. Leclerc enjoying a comfortable lead, Perez attempted to pry P2 off Russell on Lap 10 but was held off masterfully by the Mercedes into Turn 1. Agonisingly for Verstappen, even though he was within striking distance on Lap 25, that DRS just wouldn’t open and give him that extra burst of pace. So Verstappen pitted a second time from mediums back to softs on Lap 29 and caught up to Russell’s tail by Lap 37, when Russell swapped for another set of mediums. Mercury indicating air temperature of 36 degrees Celsius and a track temperature of 49 degrees C, the heat was most definitely on. Valtteri Bottas’s soft-medium-medium strategy saw him lose out to soft-tyred finishers Sainz and Hamilton, the Finn taking a still-solid P6 finish for Alfa Romeo. In seventh was Esteban Ocon, up five places for Alpine with two soft-tyred stints. Hamilton passed Sainz for P4 with a brilliant move at Turn 1 with five laps left, but then dropped to P5 having been told to lift off by his Mercedes team. Soaring temperatures weren’t the only problem on Sunday; huge gusts into Turn 4 caused both Carlos Sainz and Verstappen to go off track and drop down the order early on.