Max Verstappen becomes the youngest ever winner in F1 on his Red Bull debut

At the Spanish GP in Barcelona yesterday, Max Verstappen became the youngest ever driver in the sport to win a Grand Prix on his debut with the Red Bull Racing Team ahead of the Ferrari drivers of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel when the Mercedes drivers were out of the race on Lap 1.

From second on the grid, Nico Rosberg enjoyed a slightly better start than Hamilton on pole and passed his team-mate around the outside of the first corner. But while coming out of Turn 3; Hamilton managed to gain a superb launch, moving into Rosberg’s slipstream and across to the right as he aimed for an overtake.

Rosberg aggressively covered off what was an ambitious move by Hamilton, who had managed to get his front wing aligned with the German’s right-rear tyre. In order to avoid a collision with his team mate,Hamilton took to the grass, but immediately went into a slide and careered into Rosberg, sending both into the gravel at Turn 4.

Hamilton immediately covered his visor with both hands, and after a period of reflection sat in his car, later flung his steering wheel out in a fit of anger. The incident immediately brought out the safety car, with Daniel Ricciardo leading new team-mate Verstappen on Lap 4, followed by Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr, who had started eighth, and the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen.

As the race unfolded, Ricciardo led Verstappen, Vettel and Raikkonen for the first stint until he pitted on Lap 12. Verstappen followed a lap later and the Red Bull drivers managed to hold on to first and second when Vettel emerged from his own stop on lap 16. All four lead drivers — Raikkonen stopped on lap 17 — took on the medium compound tyre for the second stint.

It was at this point in the both Red Bull and Ferrari decided to split the strategies of its drivers. Ricciardo’s decision to pit for soft tyres on Lap 29 was matched by Vettel and Ferrari the following lap, which at the time seemed like the fastest strategy. However it soon became clear that Verstappen and Raikkonen had gone on to the alternate strategy, therefore stretching out the middle stint on the medium tyr and at mid-distance all four men looked to have a decent shot at winning the race.

But Ricciardo and Vettel’s third and final stops gave Verstappen a lead he ultimately would not relinquish for the remaining 22 laps; having already been on medium tyres for 10 laps. He had to hold off Raikkonen in a straight fight to the finish but the Ferrari driver was not able to get close enough using his DRS overtaking device to challenge the teenager for a victory at a circuit notoriously difficult for overtaking as we have seen over the course of the weekend with GP2 and GP2.

In the closing stages of the race, Ricciardo still looked like a candidate to win with fresher medium tyres and he made an opportunistic lunge on Vettel at Turn 1 with seven laps remaining. Initially it looked like the move would stick as Ricciardo moved alongside the Ferrari driver but he was forced across the kerbs and had to yield the place.

Vettel was less than impressed with Ricciardo’s driving, angrily questioning over radio whether it was “racing or ping pong”. The move cost both men time and made it more likely Verstappen or Raikkonen (just five seconds up the road) would win the race.

Never one to give up, Ricciardo did have several more looks at passing Vettel at Turn 1 but never again got close enough to pass, with a puncture on the penultimate lap costing him any chance of another attempt at taking the final step on the podium. The gap between fourth and fifth was so big that Ricciardo was able to pit for fresh rubber without losing a position.

But it was Max Verstappen on his debut with Red Bull who won the Spanish GP after recently swapping seats with Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso graduate Verstappen became the youngest driver to win a race at the age of 18 years and 227 days, beating Sebastian Vettel’s record by more than two years which is just a fantastic achievement.

Verstappen finished ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in second place who was 0.616 seconds behind him and Sebastian Vettel in third place who was 5.581 seconds behind Hamilton.
Daniel Ricciardo ended the session in a brilliant fourth place despite what happened ahead of Valtteri Bottas in fifth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in sixth place, Sergio Perez in seventh place, Felipe Massa in a brilliant eighth place after starting in eighteenth place, Jenson Button in ninth place scoring his second consecutive points finish thia season so far and Daniil Kvyat who rounded off the top ten finishers and took a point after a difficult two weeks for the Russian driver.

Esteban Gutierrez finished just out of the points in eleventh place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in twelfth place, Jolyon Palmer in thirteenth place, Felipe Nasr in fourteenth place and Kevin Magnussen in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Pascal Wehrlein ended the race in sixteenth place ahead of his team mate Rio Haryanto in seventeenth place. Romain Grosjean, Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg did not finish the race.

The classification for the Spanish GP is as follows:-

1. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.41:40.017s
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.616s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 5.581s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 43.950s
5. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 45.271s
6. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.01.395s
7. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.19.538s
8. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.20.707s
9. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
10. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
11. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
12. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
13. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1 lap
14. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
15. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1 lap
16. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1 lap
17. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 1 lap
18. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified
19. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified
20. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, Not Classified
21. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Not Classified
22. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, Not Classified

Nico Rosberg still leads the Drivers Championship with 100 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in second place with 61 points, Lewis Hamilton is in third place with 57 points, Sebastian Vettel is in fourth place with 48 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in fifth place with 48 points, Max Verstappen is in sixth place with 38 points, Felipe Massa is in seventh place with 36 points, Valtteri Bottas is in eighth place with 29 points, Daniil Kvyat is in ninth place with 22 points and Romain Grosjean is in tenth place with 22 points.

Mercedes still lead the Constructors Championship with 157 points, Ferrari is in second place with 109 points, Red Bull is in third place with 94 points, Williams is in fourth place with 65 points, Toro Rosso is in fifth place with 26 points, Haas is in sixth place with 22 points, Force India is in seventh place with 14 points, McLaren is in eighth place with 12 points, Renault is in ninth place with 6 points and Sauber is in tenth with 0 points.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa