23^rd June 2024, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya: Round 10 of the season, Spanish Grand Prix took place at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Max Verstappen of Oracle Red Bull Racing, supported by Honda as a Team Partner, won the race, with Sergio Perez finishing in P8.

Having started on the front row behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, the Dutch driver found himself behind the Mercedes of George Russell by the end of the first lap. Just a few laps later Verstappen would move into first place and cruised to victory, finishing two seconds clear of Norris.Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez would also finish in the points after coming home in ninth position, while Visa Cash App RB driver Daniel Ricciardo finished in 15th place and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda was 19th.

Following his victory, Verstappen, who is now 69 points clear of Norris in the driver’s standings, said: "I think what made the race was the beginning. I took the lead and then had a buffer in that first stint and could eke out a gap. After that we had to drive defensively. Lando and McLaren were very quick. I think we did everything well. I am very happy to win here.”

Quotes

Max Verstappen, Oracle Red Bull Racing

 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, Oracle Red Bull Racing

 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.

Daniel Ricciardo, Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team

 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, Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team

 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.