Francesco Bagnaia looks to have escaped serious injury from his nasty crash at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, according to MotoGP Medical Director Dr Angel Charte.

The factory Ducati rider suffered a large impact after landing hard following a violent high-side exiting Turn 2 on the opening lap of the Spanish GP at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, Bagnaia subsequently run over in the leg area by the unsighted KTM of Brad Binder.

With a red flag swiftly issued to help remove the conscious Bagnaia from the circuit, the Italian was transported to the medical centre and then to the local hospital in Barcleona after a “small injury” in the “femoral and tibial area” was picked up by the circuit medical centre’s facilities.  

Speaking to Spanish broadcaster DAZN, Charte said that Bagnaia needed to undergo a further CAT scan in hospital in order to ascertain whether the injury is one picked up in the crash or potentially one from a previous incident.

“Pecco has had severe polytrauma, a motorbike ran over him in the femoral and tibial area,” explained Charte.

“We have taken x-rays of this area and have detected a small injury that we don’t know if it is current or old.

“We need to do an urgent CAT scan and that is why we have sent him to the general hospital.

“At cranial, thoracic and abdominal levels, he has been normal at all times. He was conscious and oriented. The image we have seen is from conventional radiology, so it is difficult to be sure that there is no fracture.

“It is necessary to do a CAT scan.”

It remains to be seen whether Bagnaia will be able to take to the track for next weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix, where he will need to defend a reduced 50 point margin in the championship ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin – who claimed third behind Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales in the Spanish GP.

Mercedes managed to haul two cars onto the podium for the first time in the 2023 Formula 1 season at the Spanish Grand Prix, providing optimism for the German outfit its upgraded car will mark the start of its turnaround into becoming a credible championship threat again.

Following a sobering start to the year that had yielded only a single podium and seen the Silver Arrows drop behind engine customer Aston Martin in the pecking order, Mercedes introduced an extensive upgrade package for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Alongside accepting defeat with the infamous zero sidepod concept it has run since the beginning of this regulation cycle, Mercedes also unveiled a new floor and altered front suspension as part of the bid to get its season back on track.

While the tight and twisty nature of the iconic Monte Carlo street circuit represents an outlier on the F1 calendar, a fourth and fifth-place finish for its two drivers was a mere backdrop to the main headline from the Mercedes camp that weekend: the upgrades didn’t spring any nasty surprises.

Both Mercedes drivers provided a positive assessment of the upgrades in Monaco – but the team was aware that the real test of its revised package would come in Spain: a conventional track. F1’s annual visit to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – formerly the central hub for pre-season testing – would provide the answers it couldn’t receive from the cancelled Imola event.

Home of the Spanish Grand Prix since 1991, the 4.657 km venue has synonymously been recognised – albeit with the vast changes made in recent years, including the removal of the tight left-right chicane at the end of the lap – as possessing the ideal track characteristics for providing a true barometer of an F1 car’s capabilities.

Maximising the potential of its car alluded Mercedes and continued to be a hindrance in qualifying trim, with Lewis Hamilton wounding up fifth and George Russell a surprise early casualty in Q2. However, Hamilton, who had conceded after a tough Friday that reaching Q3 would mark a successful qualifying day, did profess that a front-row starting berth alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had been attainable without a slight error into Turn 10 on his final run.

Nevertheless, while its search to optimise one-lap performance continues, the race pace Mercedes demonstrated on Sunday in Barcelona was hugely encouraging. Starting fourth and 12th respectively, Hamilton and Russell were able to effortlessly slice their way through the pack to take the chequered flag in second and third, securing the first non-Red Bull double top-three finish of 2023.

Russell’s pursuit of a podium place from outside the top 10 was undeniably aided by a surging start, but the British driver’s capability to not come under serious threat from Sergio Perez, who had started one place ahead of him on the grid, in the closing stages was a testament to the progress Mercedes has made in a short space of time.

While both Aston Martin and Ferrari ran into trouble with degradation troubles, an understated strength of the limited success Mercedes has endured in the second ground effect era supplied a key weapon in the side prevailing over its nearest rivals in Barcelona.

On a race track that always places a high emphasis on managing the tyres, Mercedes’ strength in possessing a car that is light on its rubber came to the fore, allowing both cars to run 10 laps longer than Sainz, thus creating the ideal tyre offset to pass the flailing Ferrari with ease.

However, Mercedes’ success wasn’t purely down to preserving the tyres better than the opposition. Even before that point, both Hamilton and Russell had utilised a big performance advantage to breeze past the Aston Martins, demonstrating that the updated W14 has retained a positive asset of its troubled predecessor but with the addition of a car that possesses more downforce and behaves more predictably.

Aside from the comparison against its closest challengers, the remodelled W14 was the only car in the same stratosphere as Red Bull, with Hamilton’s fastest lap ending up only 0.3s adrift of Verstappen’s best effort. Of course, the Dutchman was likely not pushing and had pace in reserve – but it was closer than anybody else got to the all-conquering RB19 by a sizeable margin.

The successive positive outings and substantial points hauls gained in both Monaco and Spain – two ostensibly different track configurations – were vital to delivering much-needed confirmation to the Mercedes engineers that the extensive work undertaken behind the scenes at its Brackley base has delivered the anticipated results.

However, due to the constraints of the cost cap and the unstable platform it had to start the year, Mercedes’ upgraded car remains a basic iteration of what is capable within the realms of these regulations – one that will certainly not be enough to threaten Red Bull. Crucially, though, after a year and five races of persisting with a failed development direction, the latest upgrades have finally handed Mercedes a good baseline from which to build during this set of rules.

Whereas previously its efforts to make headway were being hampered by a capricious set of cars that proved troublesome to understand, the Monaco updates have helped to deliver a more consistent and settled package that, in the words of team boss Toto Wolff, will enable the German side to finally attribute full focus to adding performance.

Tempering the difficulties it formerly encountered with the W14 may only mark a small step in the right direction in its ongoing recovery bid, but it has provided the type of incremental change that allowed Mercedes to successfully transform its weekend prospects overnight after a difficult Friday in Spain that had left Hamilton fearing an absence from Q3.

But despite upholding a commanding advantage over its nearest rivals, Mercedes has been reserved on declaring it now possesses the outright second fastest car in the field on any given day. Understandably so, given the false dawn that emerged from last year’s Spanish GP when the team’s W13 also ran admirably in Barcelona, prompting widespread belief internally that the team was already back on the right track to being a competitive force at the sharp end.

Heading away from Europe to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin has warned that the dependency on good top-end speed alongside solid cornering performance and traction through the series of slower-speed turns will represent an entirely different proposition to a Barcelona circuit that is dominated by medium-to-high-speed corners.

After Ferrari and Mercedes’ brought significant upgrade packages, Aston Martin has underlined it has a big update to come in Montreal. After a quiet outing for the British marque in Spain, it will be intriguing to compare the upgraded AMR23 against the amended W14 to see which team has assembled the all-around package most likely to stop Red Bull’s flawless run this year.

Ultimately, Red Bull’s dominance means the ceiling on Mercedes’ potential in 2023 will be limited to comfortably cementing itself as the consistent second force on the grid whilst simultaneously making strides to reduce the massive margin that exists to the current championship leaders.

Both are realistic and achievable targets; Mercedes’ rate of development has always been mightily impressive in the turbo-hybrid era. Even last year amid its most challenging campaign since the switch to six-cylinder turbo-hybrid engines it clawed back a considerable performance deficit to take Ferrari to the wire for second place.

Nonetheless, what previously appeared as a forlorn hope of recovering to its previous pedestal at the start of the year and potentially the end of its time as a title-contending force in its current guise, Mercedes finally have light at the end of the tunnel in its bid to recapture former glories.

While it still has a long way to go to be on par with the benchmark set by Red Bull, the upgrade was never intended to find the time it was missing to compete for regular race wins. Instead, Hamilton described the updates as a first step towards recovering the lost ground the side has imposed on itself since the beginning of last year and that’s precisely what has been achieved.

However, the hurdles will continue to arrive Mercedes’ way and it will need to combat them effectively in order to realise Hamilton’s wish for the team to put the foundations in place to challenge for the title from the moment the 2024 F1 season gets underway.

Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur asserts that the upgrades it brought to the Spanish Grand Prix were a “step forward” despite a tough outing in Sunday’s race.

Following an arduous start to the season that has it winless and sitting fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, Ferrari unveiled an extensive upgrade package ahead of the weekend, including the addition of a new sidepod configuration.

While Carlos Sainz was able to secure a front-row starting berth from qualifying, the Italian outfit’s race-day struggles continued in Barcelona, with the Spaniard dropping to fifth by the chequered flag.

While Vasseur acknowledges that Ferrari still lags behind both Red Bull and Mercedes, who scored a double podium with its revised car, in race trim, the Frenchman provided a positive assessment of how the new parts on its SF-23 fared.

“We made a step forward this weekend in terms of our qualifying pace, with Carlos on the front row after the best Saturday of his season so far,” Vasseur said. “However it is clear that, in terms of race pace, Red Bull and Mercedes are quicker than us.

“As for the upgrades, I think we have made a step forward overall if you compare this weekend with Miami. Clearly, we know it is still not enough.”

Although Ferrari has consistently been Red Bull’s nearest competitor over a single lap in 2023, the Scuderia has been unable to sustain a competitive challenge on Sundays.

Both Sainz and Charles Leclerc have issued in recent weeks how the car remains increasingly difficult to drive on higher fuel runs due to the unpredictability it offers.

Despite the addition of upgrades targeted at improving race pace and overall consistency, Leclerc explained after the latest grand prix his contrasting fortunes at different points of the race on the same hard compound tyre.

Therefore, Vasseur outlines Ferrari’s biggest target is to improve the consistency of its capricious SF-23 charger rather than simply chasing performance gains.

“Our problem is not our outright performance, it is our lack of consistency,” he revealed.

“Charles’ first set of hards was a sort of a nightmare but then on his last set of the same compound he was happy with the balance: we must assess this inconsistency. Now we will focus completely on this issue before Canada.

“For sure we will continue to develop the car but this is a matter of improving by tenths of a second, whereas in the race we are looking for seconds at the moment. There is something in the car that we must unlock if we want to move forward.”

With Leclerc coming home outside of the points to compound a torrid weekend on his side of the garage, Sainz’s fifth place saw Ferrari lose further ground to both Aston Martin and Mercedes.

The Maranello squad finally surpassed the 100-point mark in Spain but now sit a substantial 50 points behind Mercedes, who took over second place from Aston Martin on Sunday, in the Constructors’ Championship.

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says Haas must “find a solution” to the tyre degradation problems that hampered both cars in the Spanish Grand Prix.

While Kevin Magnussen was an early casualty from Q1, Nico Hulkenberg delivered an exceptional effort in qualifying to wound up seventh on the grid for Sunday’s race.

However, the German was unable to maintain a place inside the top 10, rapidly being relegated down the order once he ran into trouble with fastly wearing tyres.

The American outfit eventually had to pit its drivers three times – once more than the rest of the grid – and Steiner contends the team needs to go “back to the drawing board” to understand the issues.

“Quite a disappointing result today, we just couldn’t get the tyres to stay alive,” Steiner acknowledged. “We did one more pit stop than everyone else, but even if we hadn’t stopped, we would’ve gone slower and ended up there anyway.

“We need to go back to the drawing board and try to find a solution to our tyre degradation.”

A failure to keep the tyres in competitive shape over the course of a race stint has been a regular weakness of Haas’ VF-23 package and has often seen the squad fumble promising starting positions.

Hulkenberg, who crossed the line a disappointing 15th, echoed Steiner’s comments, underlining that Haas has work to do to translate its searing one-lap potential into race trim.

“It was tough,” Hulkenberg added. “Unfortunately, the degradation was really high for us and we had to three-stop whereas the competition didn’t.

“It looks at first glance that over one lap we’re competitive but in the long runs we still have some homework to do and some pace to find.”

Meanwhile, having already had his weekend compromised by a poor Saturday showing, Magnussen states his chances of mounting a fightback were also thwarted by the tyre complications Haas endured.

“It was a tough day in terms of tyre management,” the Dane rued. “At the beginning of every stint, it was quite competitive compared to everyone we were fighting, but our tyres just fell off quickly and we had to three-stop which wasn’t optimal.

“Hopefully we can try and learn about what caused it to improve, but certainly it was a tough race. When you have a bad weekend like this, you tend to find some interesting answers and that’s what I’m hoping for now – onto the next one.”

Haas’ failure to score points in Barcelona opened the door for Alfa Romeo, courtesy of Zhou Guanyu’s ninth place, to draw level with the Kannapolis side in the battle for seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Both Ferrari-powered customer teams currently reside on eight points, six points ahead of AlphaTauri, who squandered points when Yuki Tsunoda was hit with a five-second time penalty.

Valtteri Bottas says that floor damage he picked up towards the start of the Spanish Grand Prix resulted in his lack of performance.

The Finn languished towards the rear of the field on race day after qualifying in 16th place.

Bottas went backwards during the race and crossed the line in 19th position, one lap down on race winner Max Verstappen.

His performance raised eyebrows amid a strong day for his team-mate Zhou Guanyu who is currently experiencing his second full season in F1.

“For me, it’s pretty clear there was something not right with the car, because I was more than one second per lap off, just sliding around,” Bottas said after the grand prix.  

“Whether it was a mechanical or aero issue I cannot say, because the balance was not, like, way off, but there was just a lack of overall grip.  

“So, we’ll see if there’s something damaged in the car.”

And following further investigations, Bottas confirmed that Alfa Romeo discovered damage to his floor that cost him substantial pace during the grand prix.

“First of all, congratulations to Zhou and the team for getting points; he showed good pace, and that’s encouraging for the next races, as proof of the hard work put in by the team back home in Hinwil and here at the track,” he said. 

“From my side, we found damage to the floor, probably from some debris picked up at the start of the race, and that cost us quite a big chunk of performance: as a result, I just lacked pace altogether today, I wasn’t able to put up a fight with anybody and it was quite a long race for me. 

“I know we can put this race behind us and quickly come back on the right track before heading to Montreal in two weeks. 

“The circuit will be once again completely different, and hopefully it’ll suit our car. 

“We had a decent race in Montreal last year, scoring a very good result for the team: hopefully, we’ll be able to replicate that, and keep this streak running.”

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have praised Mick Schumacher for his effort to improve Mercedes’ form at the Spanish Grand Prix.

After Friday practice last weekend, Mercedes was cautious over its pace, with Hamilton stating that it would be a struggle to progress into Q3 during qualifying.

Schumacher, who is working as Mercedes’ reserve driver for the 2023 season, was at the Brackley factory on Friday conducting set-up work.

After a mixed qualifying that saw Russell drop out in Q2 and Hamilton finish P5, Mercedes enjoyed a strong grand prix as both Hamilton and Russell finished on the podium.

“Friday was a real struggle with the balance, it was way out of the window,” Hamilton reflected. “It was very hard to drive, very unpredictable. 

“And then we did some great work overnight. We’ve got a great team, with Mick back in the simulator on Friday night and he did some great work, which helped us get on the right track on Saturday.

“I think we did pretty decent work in trying to understand the different downforce levels. And in the race today the car felt great. 

“But honestly I just couldn’t match the times that Max [Verstappen] was doing. And for George to come from 12th to third is just remarkable. So, really awesome result for us as a team.”

Russell, too, commended the work carried out by Schumacher as Mercedes scored just its second double podium in the last 16 races.

“It probably felt the best it’s ever felt around Barcelona because of the cooler conditions,” he said. 

“But definitely this season, probably the best it’s felt, the most together it’s felt and as Lewis said, the team’s done a really, really great job. 

“The work that Mick and the simulator team are doing overnight, they were there well past midnight to help us with the setup and get it in a good window for the race today.

“So we are making strides in the right direction. We just need to make sure, especially into next year, that we hit the ground running because I think we as a team probably develop faster than anybody else.”

Max Verstappen strengthened his grasp on the Formula 1 title in 2023 with another commanding drive at the Spanish Grand Prix.  

But on a weekend where several high-profile drivers were caught out by changing conditions, who tailed the reigning World Champion in impressing on the track?  

Max Verstappen – 10

Qualified: P1, Race: P1

An utterly dominant and flawless drive from the reigning World Champion. He led every practice session, topped two of the three stages in qualifying as he sauntered to an unopposed pole position and then rounded it off with a masterfully controlled race drive to deliver a magnificent grand slam victory. 

The only minor blemish on his excellence was receiving the black and white flag for track limits – but even that, nor his team’s attempts to slow him down, could hinder a successful attempt to set the race’s fastest lap, notching him a bonus point to extend his lead at the top to a mammoth 53 points.

Sergio Perez – 5.5

Qualified: P11, Race: P4

Perez’s endeavour to bounce back from a disastrous Monaco weekend was derailed when an excursion at Turn 5 meant that he failed to reach Q3 for the second qualifying session in the space of a week. 

The Mexican attributed an unsuccessful attempt to adjust his driving style and changeable conditions throughout Saturday as the primary reasons for his early exit. 

Unlike in Monaco, Perez was able to utilise the array of overtaking opportunities in Barcelona to rise to fourth – but on a weekend where his team-mate dominated proceedings, even exceeding the team’s pre-race simulations wasn’t good enough for his rapidly dwindling championship aspirations.

Lewis Hamilton – 9

Qualified: P5 (Started: P4), Race: P2

Having feared he would struggle to make Q3 at the end of Friday, 24 hours later Hamilton expressed annoyance at missing out on a spot on the front row after committing a minor but costly error at Turn 10. 

Nevertheless, the Brit made a typically fast start to gain the high ground on Lando Norris – avoiding a puncture as the McLaren tagged his rear – before utilising the superior race day performance of the upgraded Mercedes W14 to move his way up to an encouraging second place at the close.

George Russell – 8

Qualified: P12, Race: P3

As Hamilton sailed effortlessly through qualifying, Russell was made to rue a set-up alteration between FP3 and qualifying for his surprise omission from Q3.

However, he made a surging start to make up multiple places on the opening lap, including immediately beating Perez off the line – a move that would prove crucial to scoring his first podium of the season. 

The one-time F1 race winner transpired to pull off a series of clinical overtakes and then had the pace in hand during the final stint to keep Perez at bay to claim third. 

Carlos Sainz – 8

Qualified: P2, Race: P5

With the sister Ferrari encountering issues, the Scuderia’s hopes in qualifying rested on Sainz’s shoulders and he rose to the occasion in front of his fanatical home crowd to register a best lap that entitled him to a starting place on the front row.

Although he surrendered positions to both Mercedes drivers and Perez once degradation became a hindering factor on his SF-23, Sainz’s drop to fifth by the end of the race was more reflective of the car’s struggles in race trim than the Spaniard’s own outright performance. 

Charles Leclerc – 4.5

Qualified: P19 (Started: Pit lane), Race: P11

Last year’s Spanish GP pole sitter provided the biggest headline from qualifying when he dropped out of the running in Q1. 

Having reported problems with the rear of his car in the left-hand corners – an issue subsequently supported by the data – Leclerc was withdrawn to the pit lane to allow the team to conduct changes.

Despite the engineers’ making alterations to his set-up and placing him on an alternate strategy, the Monegasque driver was unable to make enough headway in his opening stint on the hard tyre to ensure he elevated his way into the top 10 at the finish.

Fernando Alonso – 6.5

Qualified: P9 (Started: P8), Race: P7

After five podiums in six races, there was much anticipation that Alonso would be standing on the rostrum again at his home event – 10 years after his last appearance. 

However, the former two-time F1 champion’s chances of a top-three finish were dented when he endured a scrappy qualifying hour. Alonso ran wide into the gravel at the final corner in Q1 to pick up noticeable floor damage before a mistake on his solitary run in Q3 meant he could only muster ninth, five-tenths shy of team-mate Lance Stroll. 

Against the form book of previous rounds, the AMR23 was not able to recover from a qualifying deficit in race trim on this occasion, with Alonso declaring the Silverstone side simply lacked the speed to challenge its rivals in the Championship.

Lance Stroll – 8

Qualified: P6 (Started: P5), Race: P6

Stroll arrived in Barcelona as a man under pressure but he responded admirably to emphatically topple Alonso in qualifying for the first time as team-mates.

The Canadian took advantage of Hamilton and Norris’ Lap 1 contact to seize third, executing a clean move down the inside of the Mercedes into the Turn 5 hairpin. 

But that was as good as it got for Aston Martin as unforeseen degradation troubles – particularly on the soft compound – saw Stroll drop back to his qualifying position.

Esteban Ocon – 7

Qualified: P7 (Started: P6), Race: P8

The Monaco Grand Prix podium finisher was unable to replicate his one-lap exploits in Barcelona, dropping two-tenths and three places behind his team-mate in Q3. 

But Gasly’s penalty bumped Ocon up the order and a solid first lap paved the way for him to potentially land another huge haul. However, tyre troubles saw him get overtaken by ex-team-mate Fernando Alonso, bumping the Enstone squad’s lead representative to eighth. 

Pierre Gasly – 6.5

Qualified: P4 (Started: P10), Race: P10

Gasly had been frustrated to miss out on the opportunity for his own headline-grabbing result in Monaco but righted that wrong by sticking his Alpine fourth in qualifying.

However, like Leclerc last weekend, his joy was short-lived as he was deservedly hit with two separate three-place grid penalties for impeding Verstappen and Russell in Q1. 

A sluggish opening lap demoted him out of the top 10 altogether, but the Frenchman made a string of overtakes at the start of his second stint to at least assure Alpine of a third double points finish on the bounce.

Zhou Guanyu – 9

Qualified: P13, Race: P9

Following a couple of below-par weekends, the balance of power within Alfa Romeo swung back towards Zhou in Spain as he produced arguably his best weekend in F1.

The 24-year-old easily had the measure of Valtteri Bottas during an overcast qualifying and used that as a platform to score two well-earned points for the Hinwil outfit.

Valtteri Bottas – 3

Qualified: P16, Race: P19

If Bottas was left mystified by Zhou’s ability to escape the Q1 drop zone, the Finn would have been even more staggered to hear his Alfa Romeo partner had delivered a points finish in precisely the same machinery.

Following a strong Friday, Bottas ghosted the rest of the weekend, believing any chance of a comeback in the race was thwarted by picking up floor damage early on.

Yuki Tsunoda – 7.5

Qualified: P15, Race: P13

Although he squandered a higher starting spot by having his final run in Q2 deleted for track limits, Tsunoda’s breakthrough campaign looked set to churn out another impressive result when he occupied ninth place as the lap counter ticked onwards.

But the Japanese racer wasn’t rewarded for his efforts in the end, going home empty-handed and heavily incensed by the stewards’ decision to award him a five-second time penalty for forcing Zhou off at Turn 1.

Nyck de Vries – 5.5

Qualified: P14, Race: P12

The Dutch rookie out-qualified Tsunoda for the second consecutive weekend, yet that didn’t tell the full story of the respective pace comparison between the two AlphaTauris. 

De Vries was unable to maximise his starting position advantage, getting caught up on the inside into Turn 1 and spending the majority of the afternoon stuck behind slower cars.

Lando Norris – 6

Qualified: P3, Race: P17

Norris demonstrated precisely why he is deserving of better machinery than McLaren has served up in this regulation cycle by taking advantage of other drivers’ failings to place his car a stunning third in qualifying. 

While the Brit acknowledged McLaren’s race pace would mean points were still a tall order, he would have expected to run in the top 10 far longer than the first few corners. 

Having been caught out by Hamilton’s change in line and reduction in speed through Turn 2, Norris hit the rear end of the Mercedes, damaging his front wing and requiring an early trip to the pits for repairs. Even if he had conceded points were only a remote possibility heading into Sunday, throwing it all away on Lap 1 merited a hefty reduction to his weekend score.

Oscar Piastri – 6

Qualified: P10 (Started: P9), Race: P13

Norris’ bleak assertion about McLaren’s prospects for the race was at least supported by his team-mate’s swift decline through the order. 

Prior to that, Piastri had demonstrated the potential to mix it at the front with Norris in qualifying until a mistake on his final flying lap consigned him to prop up last of the 10 contenders running in Q3.

With McLaren lacking the speed on higher fuel to maintain a position that would yield a points return, the Australian at least managed to steer clear of trouble to win out in the McLaren intra-team battle.

Nico Hulkenberg – 6

Qualified: P8 (Started: P7), Race: P15

Although Hulkenberg was scintillating over a single lap to record another Q3 appearance, a reoccurrence of Haas’ race day struggles meant he couldn’t convert it into points.

Having already rapidly slipped back in the opening stages, the ex-Renault turnout was the first driver in the pits for a scheduled stop. However, the time subsequently gained through the undercut was minimised when the American side’s excessive tyre wear woes necessitated an extra stop compared to other teams.

Kevin Magnussen – 5

Qualified: P17, Race: P18

Magnussen was frustrated to be eliminated from Q1 in a car that his team-mate showed to possess genuine top 10 credentials.

While he appeared to manage Haas’ tyre issues slightly better than Hulkenberg, his lowly starting position meant he had no chance of making up the lost ground from Saturday’s pitiful performance.

Alex Albon – 6

Qualified: P18, Race: P16

Williams’ hopes of a competitive outing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya were purely nested on the return of a high-speed final sector in place of the slow left-right chicane at the end of the lap that had previously been a severe hindrance against the low-drag nature of its modern-day cars.

But the aerodynamic limitations of its 2023 package meant neither driver was able to deliver a ground-breaking result, with Albon once again emerging as the leading charger for the Grove-based team. 

Logan Sargeant – 3

Qualified: P20 (Started: Pitlane), Race: P20

During a closely fought Q1 session that ended with the top 19 drivers separated by only 1.1s, Sargeant stuck out like a sore thumb at the bottom of the tower, 0.6s off. 

Unsurprisingly, a lonely affair followed with an uncompetitive car. His spin into the gravel in practice, exposing how basic the Williams FW45 floor is, provided the tip of the iceberg of another bad weekend for the American newcomer, whose desperate need for a confidence-boosting result remains.

Lando Norris concedes that a points finish at the Spanish Grand Prix was unlikely even if he had avoided damage on the opening lap.

At Turn 2, Norris tipped the rear of Lewis Hamilton’s car which damaged the McLaren driver’s front wing.

Hamilton was able to escape without a puncture, but Norris was forced into the pit lane to change his front wing, demoting him to the rear of the field.

It marked a disappointing start to the grand prix after he lined up in third place following an exceptional performance in qualifying.

Reflecting on the incident, Norris said: “Everyone just checked up, I was on the inside. It was just racing. Just unlucky, that was all.”

Norris ended the race in 17th place, far from the prospect of walking away with points. 

However, the Briton believes that McLaren didn’t have the race pace to contest inside the top 10, suggesting he would’ve dropped down the order regardless.

“It [the race] was as expected,” he said. “We knew we were going to be slow and difficult to get in the points. 

“Our target was to try and be in the points today, whether that was ninth or 10th or something. Lap one cost us everything but at the same time it would’ve been unlikely to finish in the top 10 today.

“I guess everyone’s expectations were too high after yesterday. We tried to manage as much as we could but at the same time, today was the pace we’ve had all year. 

“Yesterday was just an unknown, special day for us. But it was as expected today.”

With the Canadian Grand Prix next on the calendar, Norris highlighted that McLaren will not adopt a different approach after a difficult outing in Barcelona.

“Nothing different,” he said, when asked how he’ll repair for the Montreal round. “We’re probably the seventh quickest car, eighth quickest car. 

“We’re not fighting for points at that rate, just have to keep working hard, keep our heads down.”

Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin must understand the reasons behind the team enduring such a difficult race at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Despite only managing ninth place on the grid at his home event after damaging his floor in Q1 with an excursion into the gravel and committing an error on his sole run in Q3, the Spaniard professed that a front-row slot had been attainable in qualifying.

While Aston Martin’s race pace has typically enabled it to fight back against its rivals on a Sunday, on this occasion, the Silverstone-based squad struggled for speed in race trim compared to Mercedes and Ferrari.

Although he was able to complete a series of overtakes in the closing stages, including avoiding a feisty defence from ex-team-mate Esteban Ocon on the start-finish straight, Alonso could only trail home seventh – his worst result of the season so far.

“We didn’t have as much pace today on both the soft and hard compounds, so it was a tricky race for us,” Alonso stated. “We tried to go longer on our strategy and hoped it would pay off later with fresher tyres, but our rivals had a little more pace.

“I think sixth and seventh positions were the maximum for us. I thought our performance seemed better in qualifying, so I think we need to look at why and aim to bounce back for Canada.

“We still scored some solid points and we had no risk at the end of the race.”

Meanwhile, Lance Stroll out-qualified Alonso for the first time since the latter arrived at Aston Martin and was running as high as third at the end of Lap 1 after a well-executed dive past Lewis Hamilton into Turn 5.

However, the Canadian recalls how only five laps into the stint he began to encounter troubles with his tyres, resulting in him being eventually shifted back to the sixth position he started in by the chequered flag.

Like Alonso, Stroll asserts that Aston Martin will need to ensure it identifies the reasons for the issues that hampered the side’s competitiveness in Barcelona to avoid a repeat in the coming rounds.

“It was a fun battle with Lewis [Hamilton] on the first lap; I’ve pulled that move off before so I knew there was a gap and figured Lewis would leave me a bit of space, which he did,” he explained. “That put me in a good position going into Turn Five and I could hold the place.

“Then, from about five laps in, we really struggled with the pace. My tyre degradation was higher than expected but the cars around us didn’t seem to have the same issue, so it’s something we’ll look to understand for the coming races.

He added: “We bring home some good points finishing sixth and seventh, but I think we’d been hoping for slightly more today.”

Getting two cars to the finish inside the points was not enough for Aston Martin to retain second place in the Constructors’ Championship, though, after Mercedes delivered a double podium.

But team boss Mike Krack contends that the British outfit should not be downbeat about its failure to add a sixth podium in seven races in 2023, insisting the damage was done on the opening stint.

“We should not be disappointed with this result – even though we did not quite have the pace to fight for the podium today,” he expressed.

“It was in the first stint on the soft that we did not quite have the performance to catch the cars ahead and in the second and third stints we managed our pace and had a comfortable advantage over the teams behind us.”

Max Verstappen has emphasised that Red Bull cannot afford to rest on its laurels despite his dominant display at Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen topped each practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and went on to take pole position by almost half a second without needing to complete a final push lap in Q3.

Verstappen led every lap of the race, and collected the fastest lap, to take his fifth victory from seven starts in 2023, extending his championship lead to 53 points.

“We just have to focus on ourselves, trying to keep on improving the car,” said Verstappen.

“At the moment it all looks great but you can’t’ stand still in this world. We just keep trying to find things on the car, try to learn – like understand why the Hard [tyre] wasn’t working with the car.

“We’ll see what happens in the coming races. I don’t know if there are going to be tracks that are better or worse. We’ll find out.”

Verstappen conceded surprise at the extend of his issues on the hardest of the three compound tyres.

“It was a worse Medium, to be on the same kind of deg, and it was just sliding a lot more,” he said.

“And once I felt that, you just have to do your laps on it. Then of course, luckily we had another pit stop but it was definitely not the most enjoyable stint I’ve ever done in my life – but luckily the car is still fast, so you don’t really lose time.

“I didn’t expect that with this Hard compound but sometimes you have these surprises. Like I said, it wasn’t as enjoyable and probably a little bit harder to drive.”