Red Bull debutante Verstappen becomes youngest ever F1 Grand Prix victor after Mercedes drivers knock each other out on opening lap; Ferrari unable to stop wunderkind’s win, finish P2 & P3

In a race that unfolded more like a Hollywood script than a Formula 1 contest the inexplicable somehow transformed into the inevitable on Sunday at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. Despite another front row lockout from team Mercedes, their two talented drivers let their fierce competitiveness overcome their good sense, destroying the team’s day in an instant. As pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton saw himself passed at the start by his archival Nico Rosberg he desperately tried to regain the lead exiting Turn 3 by swinging sharply across the track and to Rosberg’s inside. But Rosberg, slowed now by being in an incorrect engine mode, appeared to coldly shut any perceived opening by jinking to the right, forcing Hamilton onto the grass and into a spin. The Englishman’s out of control Silver Arrow then came back onto the track, tagging Rosberg in the rear and sending the German points leader, as well as Hamilton, into the gravel trap at Turn 4. In an instant both Mercedes’ team cars were beached, broken and out of the race. The previously peerless team had lost the opportunity for a potentially perfect season, Rosberg saw his winning streak snapped at seven races and Hamilton failed to gain any ground in the Drivers’ Championship. While officially the team refused to apportion blame to either driver after debriefing Nikki Lauda did finger Hamilton for an overly ambitious move. Regardless, the incident would never have happened with a little more patience by Hamilton and a little more respect by Rosberg. In the end it was 43 valuable Manufacturers’ points down the tubes for Team Mercedes before the end of Lap 1.

Pics courtesy GrandPirx247.com

But Mercedes’ misfortune opened the door to something truly remarkable: Max Verstappen’s first Grand Prix win in his maiden drive for the senior Red Bull team. After replacing Daniil Kvyat during the break between Russia and Spain, all eyes were on the Dutch wunderkind as the race weekend progresssed in Barcelona. And come Sunday he didn’t disappoint. With the dominant Mercedes duo cleared from the field of combat before the end of the first lap that put Verstappen in P2 and saw his veteran teammate Daniel Ricciardo leading the race. Very shortly they would be joined by the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen and that quartet would dual each other in one configuration or another for the rest of the race. As it happened, Red Bull decided to split their strategy, putting Ricciardo on a 3-stopper while electing to have Verstappen only pit for tires twice. Eventually that enabled Verstappen to come out ahead of both Ferraris with Raikkonen his closest pursuer and shuffled Ricciardo back to 4th behind Vettel after the Aussie’s third stop on Lap 45. That’s how they would remain for the rest of the tense race, with Raikkonen hounding Verstappen for the lead and Ricciardo hounding Vettel for the last spot on the podium.

But Verstappen didn’t wilt under the pressure from Raikkonen’s Prancing Horse and the veteran Finn could never find a way past the youngster despite pulling close a few times with the aid of DRS on the start-finish straight. As the laps wound down everyone could sense that history was in the offing. And when the checkered flag flew, Max Verstappen capped a monumental weekend by becoming the youngest ever Formula 1 race winner at the tender age of 18 years, 228 days, eclipsing Sebastian Vettel’s former youth record by 210 days. For the second generation F1 driver, whose father was previously the only other Ducthman to win a Grand Prix, it was a storybook beginning to his time at Red Bull. The team clearly thinks he has the potential to become the next Vettel and add to their four Constructors’ championships. In giving him a Toro Rosso drive at age 17 and then promoting him mid-season this year to the A-team, Red Bull once again defied convention and stuck with their own philosophy that youth must be served and team tenure and seniority is vastly overrated. Verstappen certainly rewarded them and sooner than even they or he would have believed. And with their chassis and engine performance improving week-by-week it’s not unreasonable to believe that they might even have something for mighty Mercedes when they compete on even terms.

Ferrari must have been slightly flummoxed despite a decent P2 from Raikkonen and P3 from Vettel. With both Silver Arrows out of the fray so early it surely seemed like victory would be in the cards for the Scuderia. But the Red Bulls proved that their gains at Ferrari’s expense lately were no fluke. Now the Prancing Horses must not only try to overtake Mercedes’ technical advantage but also hold off charging Red Bull in the Constructor’s Championship. Such competitiveness at the front of the field should make the remainder of the season especially exciting, particularly once Red Bull’s big engine upgrade comes on line at the Canadian Grand Prix early in in June. Combine that with Adrian Newey’s always slippery chassis plus the superb piloting of the prodigy Verstappen and a determined Ricciardo and there could well be more surprise results in a season that looked for all the world like a Mercedes coronation.

Ricciardo had his hopes of catching Vettel and joining his flashy new teammate on the podium dashed by a late puncture but still held on to his valuable P4. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas ran a consistent if under-the-radar race to take P5, while his teammate Felipe Massa, who started P18 after poor qualifying calls by the team, fought his way up to an impressive P8, a good points haul for what now looks like the fourth best team in the sport. Toro Rosso made some noise of their own with Spaniard Carlos Sainz getting a solid P6 in front of his countrymen and the demoted and dejected Daniil Kvyat soldiering on for P10. Rounding out the top 10, Sergio Perez was again the sole survivor for Force India in P7 and Jenson Button continued McLaren’s modest point scoring streak with a P9 finish. His Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso sadly DNF’d on Lap 47 with mechanical failure.

It’s always thrilling to see history being made in any sport and Sunday’s miracle run by young Max Verstappen proved again why, when it’s at its best, Formula 1 can still be the greatest show on earth. For so many reasons, the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix will go down as one of the greatest races of all time. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Top 10 finishers in Spain:

Complete race results available at Formula1.com.

The next race promises to be another stunner, the historic Grand Prix of Monaco. Look for more contact and tricky plot lines down on the narrow streets of the principality, as Mercedes try to get back on track in Monte Carlo, Red Bull looks to keep forcing their way to the front and Ferrari simply look for a win at the most prestigious event of any F1 season. Hope to see you then!