F1 takeaways: Norris closing gap but Verstappen maintains edge at Spanish GP

While Formula One has achieved a bit of parity when it comes to qualifying, Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen is still king on the actual race day.

For now.

After Lando Norris became the fourth different driver to earn pole position over the past four races, Verstappen secured an early lead in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix en route to his seventh victory of the season.

The three-time reigning world champion now holds a 69-point advantage at the top of the drivers’ standings.

If there's a silver lining for Norris, who settled for his fourth runner-up result of the year, it's that the McLaren driver leapfrogged Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in points and sits in second overall for the first time in his career.

Norris had a taste of victory when he scored his first-ever win last month in Miami and merely stepping on the podium is no longer enough to quench his thirst. 

“We should have won today," Norris said after the race. "We had the quickest car.”

Norris qualified on pole for just the second time — the first coming at the Russian Grand Prix in September 2021 and served as a lesson learned as the team pitted a tad too late under wet weather conditions and slipped to a seventh-place finish.

This time Norris looked to cover Verstappen on the inside right after the lights went out, however, that opened the door for Mercedes driver George Russell to use a double slipstream behind both drivers to slingshot around the outside and into the lead. Norris couldn’t fend off either Russell and Verstappen and got pinched out to drop to third. 

Verstappen swooped by Russell into the first turn of Lap 3 and only relinquished the lead upon pitting. Norris inherited P1 by staying out late during his first stint — what was that about a lesson learned — but the overcut was unsuccessful as he exited the pits not only behind Russell but the other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz as well.

While Norris managed to outmanoeuvre all three — including a dicey back-and-forth jostle with Russell — that only allowed Verstappen to extend his lead.

With Verstappen struggling on his tires and his team telling him to go faster, Norris came close — and set the fastest time on Lap 51 of 66 to score a bonus point — but ended up 2.219 seconds short once the checkered flag fell.

McLaren and Norris have cut a huge deficit in short order as Red Bull and Verstappen are no longer winning by massive margins of 13 and 21 seconds and are fighting for every victory.

HAMMER TIME

Fancy seeing you on the podium: Hamilton upended Russell on Lap 52 — a role reversal from the Canadian Grand Prix a fortnight ago — to come home in third place.

The upgrades continue to deliver for Mercedes as Russell reached his first podium of the season in Montreal while Hamilton has now secured his first in 2024.

The next step will be fighting for wins as Hamilton still finished 17.790 seconds back of Verstappen and even 15.571 seconds behind Norris for that matter.

Although Hamilton was ahead of both Ferraris — you know, the team he's planning to join next year — the seven-time world champion isn't having any doubts about his future move.

“Firstly, I love Mercedes. And my job this year is to work as hard as I can with the crew that I have and the people back (at) the factory to try and move in the right direction,” Hamilton said after the race. “My job will start next year with the other team, who I think are doing a great job. I can’t tell you what is wrong with that car and why they are the position they are in today. (...) But it doesn’t make me second-guess my decision at all.”

The 39-year-old Hamilton has also now earned a podium in 18 consecutive seasons.

FERRARI INFIGHTING

Ferrari didn't factor in the winning picture as Leclerc and Carlos Sainz appeared to be more concerned duelling with each other than anything else.

Leclerc and Sainz finished where they started in fifth and sixth, respectively, but not without banging wheels along the way.

As Leclerc was doing as he was told to save his tires early, Sainz slipped by on Lap 3 and the pair made contact.

"It’s a bit of a shame but anyway we will speak internally, it’s not a big deal," Leclerc told formula1.com. "I understand it’s his home race and a very important moment of his career and he wanted to do something spectacular, and I probably wasn’t the right person to do that with.”

Remember, it wasn't only the home race for Sainz, he's also fighting for a job somewhere, anywhere next season with Hamilton set to score his seat.

“I think too many times he complains after a race about something," Sainz added. "Obviously hot, he might think that. Honestly at this point of the season I don’t know. ... I passed Charles because I don’t know if he did a mistake or he was managing a bit too much.”

Sainz had his moments battling the Mercedes but in the end, having hard tires for the final stint proved to be the wrong call with Leclerc getting by on the soft compound. Oddly enough, it was the same botched tire strategy that allowed Hamilton to get by his teammate Russell.

After a double DNF during their last outing in Canada, a solid double points finish should be something to celebrate for Ferrari and yet it's only caused more headaches.

ONE SMALL STEP FOR PEREZ

Verstappen's Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez was looking to end his qualifying slump and even simply make it to the end of a race after back-to-back DNFs. "Checo" checked the first box off by making it to the final qualifying session Saturday but a three-place grid penalty carrying over from Canada meant he'd start 11th and face an uphill battle.

Perez became the only driver outside of the top 10 to move up into a points-paying position as he finished eighth. Considering the car he's in, more improvements must be shown in rapid order to return to the form he showed at the start of the season when he was runner-up to Verstappen.

PIT STOPS

• Yes, that was another double points finish for Alpine as Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished ninth and 10th, respectively, for the second race in a row. Even before applying the grid penalty, Gasly out-qualified Perez to start seventh. Not bad for the former Red Bull driver who remains a free agent for next season. Alpine have now scored six points over their past two outings and have passed Williams and Haas to move up from ninth to seventh in the constructors' standings.

• You have to feel for Nico Hulkenberg as the Haas driver has now finished 11th — just on the outside of points — in four of the past five races. But don't feel too bad as Hulkenberg was handed a five-second penalty for speeding through the pits. Still, he was about three seconds back of Ocon regardless so it didn't affect his finishing position.

• Red Bull's sibling team RB brought upgrades for Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, not that you would have noticed. Both drivers failed to advance out of the first qualifying session with Tsunoda starting 17th and Ricciardo beside him in 18th. Ricciardo made it up to 15th — still well back of securing points mind you — while Tsunoda ended up in 19th ahead of only Logan Sargeant of Williams. Tsunoda was also dinged five seconds for speeding through the pits.