Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won a close race on Sunday in the Spanish Grand Prix, fending off McLaren’s Lando Norris in a tight race.
Verstappen got off to a hot start at the beginning of the race as he took the lead in the third lap of the race after passing Mercedes’ George Russell, while Norris was forced behind Russell for another 15 laps before he could eventually work his way up to Verstappen, per BBC Sport.
Near the end of the race, Norris passed Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Mercedes’ Russell and Lewis Hamilton as he closed in on Red Bull, getting within 4.7 seconds before Verstappen came back out for his team on lap 44, per BBC Sport.
This victory at the Spanish Grand Prix is Verstappen’s seventh win in his last ten races and his third straight victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalonia, according to Auto Blog.
Verstappen also maintained his comfortable lead at the top of the Formula 1 leaderboard with 219 points, with Norris currently in second place with 150 points and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc close behind with 148 points.
Both Verstappen and Norris credited the beginning of the race with determining the outcome, with Verstappen saying that his early lead “made the race.”
“I took the lead, and that’s where I had that buffer then in that first stint where I could eke out the gap a little bit, because I think after that, we had to drive quite a defensive race,” he explained, per AutoWeek.
“Lando and McLaren, they were very, very quick today. Especially on deg, it seems always the last few laps of the stint, they were very fast.”
Norris spoke out about the tough loss and said that he “should have won it,” but “I got a bad start, as simple as that. The car was incredible today, we were for sure the quickest, I just lose it in the beginning,” he explained, per BBC Sport.
“Disappointed but a lot of positives. One negative and that kind of ruined everything. I know that I can just work on it for next time.”
The next race will be the Qatar Airways Austrian Grand Prix, with events scheduled to begin with a practice being held on June 28.
The qualifier for this grand prix will be on June 29, and the final race will be held the following day.