After the unexciting race at Monaco just a week ago, yesterday’s Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix was a much more interesting event. In qualifying, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris of McLaren had locked out the front row of the starting grid, but defending champion driver Max Verstappen of Red Bull (who had qualified in third position) managed to overtake for second place. Through much of the race, Mr. Verstappen was playing a game of catch-up by pushing harder (with faster laps but at the cost of greater tyre wear) and with one more pit stop than the two McLaren drivers. It was a bold strategy by the Red Bull team, and it almost worked.
A late crash from the junior Mercedes driver led to deployment of the safety car, and the three leading drivers all came in for pitstops. The two McLarens emerged from the pits with new, soft tyres (the fastest available)—and the leading Red Bull emerged with … new, hard tyres (the slowest available). I would guess that Red Bull perhaps almost reflexively called Mr. Verstappen in for a pit stop, but possibly did not consider that he did not have any soft or medium tyres left.
All this meant that the entire field of cars was bunched up together (the effect of the safety car going much slower than the racing cars), the two McLaren cars were at the head of the field and with soft tyres in fresh condition, the leading Red Bull was third but with hard tyres, and the rest of the field immediately behind that Red Bull—with faster tyres. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Verstappen lost out badly in this situation, being overtaken by Charles Leclerc in the leading Ferrari, and then incurring a 10-second penalty for contact with another car. This dropped the leading Red Bull from third position to tenth position, with a massive loss of championship points.
Mr. Piastri has now finished with eight podiums in a row, and now holds five race wins for the season; more than double the wins held by each of the next two drivers (Mr. Norris and Mr. Verstappen). McLaren is running away with the Constructors’ Championship this season—and Max Verstappen will have a difficult challenge in trying to defend his Drivers’ Championship title.