Oscar Piatri beats Lando Norris, Max Verstappen is annoyed

Oscar Piatri sweated in the Catalan heat, Lando Norris took a little fear into the rear -view mirror – and Max Verstappen scolded wildly in a dramatic final phase: McLaren continued its dominance at the Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Verstappen and Red Bull delivered a hard fight for a long time with a strong strategy and a perfect trip. After a late Safety car and a ten-second penalty, the world champion fell back to tenth. Charles Leclerc in Ferrari and Mercedes pilot George Russell benefited and won the ranks three and four.

Piatri ultimately celebrated his first victory in a month and thus broadcast a sign of strength in the title duel with Norris. The Australian is now a ten -point lead over the English. It continues for Formula 1 on June 15th in Canada.

Two topics dealt with the field just before the red traffic lights went out: Firstly, the great heat at the gates of Barcelona, ​​the route temperature was 50 degrees. « Everything will be about the tires, » said Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko at Sky. « It is the hottest day of the week. And the heat is on the side of McLaren. »

On the other hand, the start was a big topic, the first hurdle for all pilots. Almost 600 meters are in Barcelona from the line to the first curve – if you get away badly on the first meters, you usually pay for it. Verstappen had therefore paid special attention to the start of the race, the start was « time to shine, » he said. And the world champion was one of the leading actors, got away well and immediately pushed himself past Norris in second place.

With new tires in the last rounds

At the top, Piatri built up a cushion of about four seconds quite effortlessly, behind it the McLaren-Box Norris pointed out to put pressure on them. « Compared to them, I don’t have a grip, » the world champion sparked with a view to the McLaren, five rounds later Norris went out of the slipstream.

But Red Bull had expected this scenario and opted for an aggressive three-stop strategy: Verstappen went to the box very early, took the soft, fastest tires again and then made a lot of time. Both McLaren only came to the first stop after a third of the race and were now back behind Verstappen.

The Dutch took its second stop shortly before the race, was now by far the fastest in the field with the fresh tires – due to the different strategies, it was now a remote duel with the McLaren, on average there was about a second faster and caused nervous radio sayings in the competition.

Around the same time, the trio then came to the next tire change, Verstappen came very close in this phase – but McLaren seemed to have successfully warded off the attack. A Safety car phase ten laps before the end caused new uncertainty. Everyone got new tires again, everyone moved closer together. The remaining type then achieved the McLaren duo better, but Verstappen fell behind Charles Leclerc and was then punished for a hard maneuver against Russell.