SPAIN: It's hotting up now...

NUMBER TEN

Into our tenth race of the season and gaps are closing up, with the drivers giving us a battle in Spain.

Let’s start at the top and look at Verstappen and Norris. It’s not a gladiatorial jostle for the top spot – they take turns in the lead while the other pits. We don’t see dramatic wheel-to-wheel action, but we do see a changing dynamic. For me, Verstappen’s superpower is his consistency under pressure – the man reliably delivers race after race. This season, Norris is showing that same consistency – scoring points every race and keeping his cool. The cars are getting ever closer in pace, and with 2 confident drivers on board it’s safe to say Red Bull’s domination is dwindling.

What Red Bull and McLaren don’t have this race is their respective other drivers picking up the pace. Verstappen takes P1 while Perez struggles to make much of an impact – yes, he moves up the grid from P11 to P8, but he’s competing with Alpine and Haas not Ferrari and Mercedes. Piastri does better with P7, but similarly cannot penetrate the Ferrari/Mercedes wall.

In contrast, we’ve got other teammates stuck together like glue. A classic Ferrari move with Sainz and Leclerc making contact early on - the competition continuing right until the end with Leclerc on softs nabbing P5 from Sainz on hards in Lap 55. It’s a similar story at Mercedes, with both cars showing a serious increase in pace, battling for podium. Russell’s sweeping overtake for the lead in Lap 1 is impressive and, more importantly, his aggression continues throughout the race. His fight for P2 with Norris mid-race sees the 2 cars diving into corners, swapping positions again and again before Norris finds that extra pace in the McLaren to get away and nab that second step. Frustratingly, Russell then pits for hards which scuppers his race, just as it does for Sainz who pits at the same time for the same tyre, while their teammates opt for the more favourable softs. Hamilton provides us with some excellent overtakes, particularly against Sainz, and takes P3 off Russell in Lap 52. All of a sudden we’re seeing several constructors teetering on podium finishes.

Alpine prove themselves to be worthy points winners, with Gasly P9 and Ocon P10. The same cannot be said for Aston Martin who struggle to make any moves at all. It looks as if Alonso is tagged early on as he drops from P10 to P14, but the car appears to carry on as normal albeit lacking in speed, with Alonso coming in at P12. His teammate Stroll takes P14, just behind the Sauber of Zhou Guanyu at P13. Hulkenberg nabs P11, keeping a Haas in the midfield.

At the bottom, RB, having come to the race with sparkly new upgrades, make very little impact, with Tsunoda all the way down at P19. Ricciardo does marginally better at P15 – getting several overtakes done in the final 10 laps. Bottas takes P16 for Sauber and Magnussen P17 for Haas, while Albon comes in at P18 and Sargeant P20 for Williams – classic.

All 20 cars manage to cross the finish line, yippee.