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.
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. Continue reading