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Battle for Bronze: Who’s on top after the Spanish Grand Prix?

Battle for Bronze: Who’s on top after the Spanish Grand Prix?

10-05-2021 15:00
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Toby McLuskie

Once again, Mercedes and Red Bull were on top at the Spanish Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battling for the victory and Valtteri Bottas claiming the final podium spot. However, the midfield battle we witnessed on Sunday was anything but boring. A tight affair involving a large majority of drivers meant that the seven points-scoring positions were important for all teams in the midfield.

McLaren still held the lead over their competition after Portimao, with Ferrari missing out two points finishes as Carlos Sainz dropped out of the top 10 towards the end of the race. Alpine’s strong showing in Portugal, resulted in the French team scoring more points than the Prancing Horses. AlphaTauri had Pierre Gasly supplying the team a point and Aston Martin struggled to push forward in the race and missed out on points once again.

As our weekend in Catalonia has now ended, which team is leading the way?

McLaren

Despite Lando Norris having a quiet race for the first time this season, Daniel Ricciardo’s sixth-place finish allows McLaren to still hold the lead over Ferrari in the Constructors’ championship. The Australian tied his season-best finish this weekend and seems to finally have found comfort driving his new car. Both drivers bettered their qualifying position by one place on Sunday, with Norris finishing in eighth, his worst finish this season. However, the 12 points claimed in Spain have allowed the British team to hold a five-point lead over their closest rivals into Monaco in two weeks time.

Ferrari

A dry weekend in Portimao meant that Ferrari needed to score points this weekend in order to stay in reach of McLaren and that’s exactly what they did. Charles Leclerc had a superb weekend,  qualifying and finishing in P4. The Monegasque driver had a Driver of the Day worthy performance, battling with Bottas for a large majority of the race and finished with 12.3% of the votes, behind only Hamilton and Verstappen. Sainz also had a strong performance. The Spaniard split the McLaren duo and finished in seventh. Together Ferrari claimed 18 points, reducing the gap to their British rivals to only five points.

Alpine

Alpine, yet again, were in the points as Esteban Ocon finished in ninth to claim two points for the French team. The Frenchman, however, would have been hoping for a stronger finish, after he qualified in P5 on Saturday. Fernando Alonso, on the other hand, struggled. The two-time World Champion finished within the top 10 in Portimao alongside his teammate but was unable to find the pace to match the tight midfield affair and dropped from P10 on the starting grid to P17, come the chequered flag.

AlphaTauri

A tough day for AlphaTauri was on show on Sunday, as Yuki Tsunoda’s struggling start to his rookie season continued and Gasly’s penalty mistake cost the team an extra championship point. Gasly started too far forward on the grid and was awarded with a five-second penalty, which he served on one of his pit stops. However, the Frenchman was still able to battle his way back from P19 up to P10 and secure a point for the Italian team. Tsunoda had an engine stop failure and had to retire early on in the race, much to his disappointment.

Aston Martin

The Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel put themselves into a potential position to score points in qualifying, as they qualified in P11 and P13 respectively. However, both were unable to move up the grid on Sunday and finished outside the points again. Both finished in their starting positions and missed out on points by seconds. This means that it’s been two pointless weekends in a row now for the British team and they now sit five points behind AlphaTauri, seventh in the Constructors’ championship.

Which team in the midfield has had the best weekend? Let us know in the comments!