The F1 circus headed to Spain for a race that is usually one of the dullest of the year, and the 2023 edition was slightly better than usual. It was all about Max Verstappen though, so to sum up the race our summary covers the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix Result for the big event and so much more.
This 2023 Spanish Grand Prix Result, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
And to see how close our bold predictions were – look back on our 2023 Monaco Grand Prix Preview.
READ MORE:
2023 Monaco Grand Prix Driver Ratings
Our 2023 F1 Calendar & Results
2023 Spanish Grand Prix Result Main Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen took pole position and looks fast enough over the weekend to lap the entire field. Behind him it looks like real fun for second best. Helped by two of the biggest rivals to Max stuffing up qualifying again. Sergio Perez in 11th and Charles Leclerc didn’t get out of Q1 and starts 19th. Rain is possible, so is Max Verstappen disappearing into the distance, and similarly a surprise podium. Norris? Hulkenberg? Hamilton? Anything could happen, although you’ll probably need rain for that. But will probably end up a boring Red Bull 1-2.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER SAI NOR HAM STR OCO HUL ALO PIA GAS — PER (11th) — LEC (Pit Lane)
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Max Verstappen gets away well but is challenged by Carlos Sainz into the first corner and just stays ahead. Further back Brits Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris hit each other and Norris is the loser heading to the pits. Lance Stroll is the big mover with some brisk overtaking to get up to third. His team mate Alonso is up to 6th from 8th. Sergio Perez overtakes Piastri into the first corner of the 2nd lap. Pierre Gasly hands himself some more penalties by dropping from 10th to 15th. Charles Leclerc is ahead of only Lando Norris after three laps in a terrible start.
ORDER – VER SAI STR HAM OCO ALO RUS HUL ZHO PIA
Lap 4 – Lando Norris sets a pair of fastest laps at the back of the field. Ahead, not much else is happening. Max Verstappen is only 2.5 second ahead of second placed Sainz, which isn’t bad as there were fears Verstappen could lap the field.
Lap 6 – In a cars-that-stuffed-qualifying update – Sergio Perez takes Nico Hulkenberg for 9th. Charles Leclerc is up to 17th.
Lap 7 – George Russell tempts fate and overtakes home grown hero Fernando Alonso for 6th. Less dangerous for their health is Yuki Tsunoda overtaking Hulkenberg for 10th.
Lap 8 – It’s a two-for-one special for Mercedes overtaking Aston Martin when Lewis Hamilton steals third off Lance Stroll.
ORDER – VER SAI HAM STR OCO RUS ALO ZHO PER TSU
Lap 9 – DRS working a treat today as Sergio Perez climbs to 8th at the expense of Guanyu Zhou, who has been pretty solid up to that point. And Zhou pits at the end of the lap for tyres. Interesting. Well, interesting enough.
Lap 11 – Mercedes looking plenty quick right now, as George Russell takes Esteban Ocon for 5th.
Lap 14 – Esteban Ocon is the first of the semi-interesting drivers to pit for tyres. He comes out (13th) just in front of a scrap between Hulkenberg, Zhou and Tsunoda who are squabbling like seagulls over a chip for 14th. Stroll pits a lap later hoping to stay in front of Ocon, which he does.
Lap 17 – Carlos Sainz pits from second, and questions his team’s call. Which is fair enough given he looked OK in second, and his team’s strategy decisions over the past few seasons could be described as anywhere between passable and bog ordinary. Sainz rejoins in 9th, behind his team mate on hard tyres and an even harder strategy. Charles Leclerc stops a lap later, which makes you wonder about the hard tyre strategy. Or any Ferrari strategy.
ORDER (with Pit Stop) – VER HAM RUS ALO PER PIA GAS (all 0) SAI STR OCO TSU (all 1)
Lap 20 – Alonso and Gasly pit. Alonso returns to the track in 10th, Gasly is 16th. Not sure how relevant Gasly’s 16th is. We’ll get back to you on that. Well he does set a fastest lap on lap 22.
Lap 22 – Exactly one-third distance and Max Verstappen is out in front by ten seconds to Lewis Hamilton. No rain yet or soon. So the race for first place is sorted then.
Lap 25 – Lewis Hamilton pits and falls behind Carlos Sainz for the race to net second. A lap later George Russell pits and falls behind Lance Stroll in 5th.
Lap 27 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead and returns into open space. That’s probably the hardest thing he will have to do today.
Lap 28 – Now you’re talking….George Russell radios in declaring rain at turn five. Looking down the pit straight – where the weather is coming from – and it’s looking darker. Oh, and Lewis Hamilton overtakes Carlos Sainz for second. For the record, no other talk of rain or evidence, so we presume George Russell was talking crap.
ORDER – VER HAM SAI RUS STR OCO TSU ALO PER ZHO
Lap 31 – Sergio Perez passes Fernando Alonso for 8th. Alonso is having the kind of mere mortal, ordinary race most expected at the start of the season.
Lap 33 – Sergio Perez is up to 7th, overtaking Yuki Tsunoda having another good weekend.
Lap 34 – Talking of good weekends, Max Verstappen is nearly 14 seconds ahead, and is continually extending the gap over Hamilton in second on hard tyres vs the medium tyres on the Mercedes.
Lap 35 – Russell passes Sainz for third in a really good move. Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg are the first drivers to make a second stop.
Lap 43 – Max Verstappen and Red Bull proving they are all human with the radio message saying Verstappen is really struggling with his tyres. He still extends his gap to second mind you. And he is lining up to lap 12th and 13th.
ORDER – VER HAM RUS PER ALO SAI STR OCO TSU ZHO
Lap 46 – Alonso pits, then Russell the next lap. Russell drops only to fourth, but Alonso is 10th. Max Verstappen gets a warning about track limits. And those rain clouds are getting darker but not appearing to be any closer.
Lap 51 – Alonso overtakes Ocon for 7th. Ocon nearly puts Alonso into the paddock as he swerves as the two cars go down the main straight.
Lap 53 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead. He was probably bored. Sergio Perez takes Carlos Sainz for fourth. He’s an outside chance of still finishing second. 12 seconds behind with 12 laps to go. Spoiler alert, he doesn’t do it.
Lap 62 – Just four laps to go, and you might be wondering where we have been. Well not much has happened. The big on track thing is Max Verstappen potentially getting penalised for exceeding track limits.
Last lap – Max Verstappen cruises to the win, and extends his championship lead over everyone. Mercedes looked like they were heading in the right direction with 2nd and 3rd. Sergio Perez finishes fourth. No retirements after the 66 laps and 20 drivers, which is an outstanding effort, if only a little boring.
FINAL ORDER – VER HAM RUS PER SAI STR ALO OCO ZHO GAS
| Pos | Drivers | Grid | Time |
| 1 | Max VERSTAPPEN | 1 | 78 Laps |
| 2 | Lewis HAMILTON | 4 | 24.090 behind |
| 3 | George RUSSELL | 12 | 32.389 behind |
| 4 | Sergio PEREZ | 11 | 35.812 behind |
| 5 | Carlos SAINZ | 2 | 45.698 behind |
| 6 | Lance STROLL | 5 | 1:03.320 behind |
| 7 | Fernando ALONSO | 8 | 1:04.127 behind |
| 8 | Esteban OCON | 6 | 1:09.242 behind |
| 9 | Guanyu Zhou | 13 | 1:11.878 behind |
| 10 | Pierre GASLY | 10 | 1:13.530 behind |
| 11 | Charles LECLERC | PitLane | 1:14.419 behind |
| 12 | Yuki TSUNODA | 15 | 1:15.416 behind |
| 13 | Oscar Piastri | 9 | 1 lap behind |
| 14 | Nyck de Vries | 14 | 1 lap behind |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | 7 | 1 lap behind |
| 16 | Alexander Albon | 18 | 1 lap behind |
| 17 | Lando NORRIS | 3 | 1 lap behind |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | 17 | 1 lap behind |
| 19 | Valtteri BOTTAS | 16 | 1 lap behind |
| 20 | Logan Sargeant | PitLane | 1 lap behind |
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Win, pole position, and fastest lap. We’re pretty sure he never gave up the lead either. What more do you want.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – Was the dominant driver on this track a few years ago, and showed glimpses of real speed this weekend. Second is a quality result.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Decent drive from 12th on the grid and grabs himself the final podium.
LANCE STROLL – Out-qualified and finished higher than his very accomplished team mate. A good comeback after his dodgems effort in Monaco.
GUANYU ZHOU – A very qyiet, solid drive to 9th. In the top ten for most of the afternoon.
THE GRAPE-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Qualified third in a sensational effort. It all came to nil as he clashed with Lewis Hamilton at the first corner and he was at the back of the field or in the bottom few for large parts of the race.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – Missed out in Q1 somehow, started from pit lane, and only climbed as far as 11th. Championship hopes over for him really.
SERGIO PEREZ – May have finished much higher than expected from his 11th grid slot, but despite the recovery, he shouldn’t be putting himself into the position of needing to fight through half the field if he is to be a serious Championship contender. Which he isn’t.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Possibly a bit harsh, but given his form in 2023 so far, and he was in his home country for the race, we’re sure he was aiming for higher.
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest.
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
Note: this is for the combined races.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 6 / 10
Just another win from Max Verstappen, and a bump in the Championship standings as Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc stuff qualifying. The season is getting away from the other drivers.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6/10
DRS helped, but loads of overtaking into the first corner.
ENDING 3 / 10
Excitement limited to Sergio Perez nudging closer to the Mercedes, and Max Verstappen potentially getting a penalty getting a time penalty as he has exceeded track limits too much.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
A 50% race rating isn’t too bad for the Spanish Grand Prix. Even though there was bugger-all racing right at the front, the competitive groups of cars who aren’t Max Verstappen seems quite close and promising for the rest of the year ahead.
2023 SEASON RATINGS SO FAR
Want to know what we thought of previous races? Or which ones to to back and watch?
R1 – Bahrain Grand Prix –
R2 – Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – 10/30
R3 – Australian Grand Prix – 23/30
R4 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix – 8/30
R5 – Miami Grand Prix – 20/30
R6 – Monaco Grand Prix – 23/30
2023 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
Who not check out last season: Our 2022 F1 Season Driver Ratings
