2023 Spanish Grand Prix

## Lap Leaders

The **2023 Spanish Grand Prix** (officially known as the **Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio de España 2023**) was the seventh race of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the weekend of June 2 to June 4, 2023.

## Background

### Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen leads the World Drivers' Championship with 144 points, 39 points from his teammate Sergio Pérez, second, and 51 from Fernando Alonso in third. Red Bull Racing, with 224 points, lead the Constructors' Championship from Aston Martin by 129 points and Mercedes by 130 points.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

### Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1, C2, and C3 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

### Track changes

From this edition, Formula One will use the layout used by MotoGP since 2021, removing the chicane in the last sector of the lap that Formula One had used every year since it was introduced in 2007, and reverting the final corners for Formula One cars to a sweeping fast configuration that Formula One last used in 2006.

## Qualifying

### Qualifying Report

Qualifying was held on 3 June 2023, at 16:00 local time (UTC+2).

George Russell reported incoming rain as the first segment began; the first half of the Formula 2 session earlier that day was held under heavy rain. Valtteri Bottas went off the track at turn 12, red-flagging the session due to gravel on the track, but Bottas had recovered back to track as the red flag was waved. Joining Bottas in the gravel was hometown hero Fernando Alonso and Alexander Albon in the final corner and turn 5, respectively. Meanwhile, Nico Hülkenberg topped the session, but his lap time was soon deleted due to infringement of track limits. Charles Leclerc had a poor session, setting a time good enough for 19th and knocking him out of the first segment and the first as such since the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix. Joining the Monégasque were Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Albon, and Logan Sargeant. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen reported Pierre Gasly for impeding, with an investigation being called after the session.

The second segment saw Sergio Pérez go off-track too. An incident involving Lewis Hamilton and George Russell was shown on the replays, with the former suffering from significant front-wing damage. Russell was now under investigation for impeding, and joined Pérez, Zhou Guanyu, and the AlphaTauris of Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda in the Q2 drop zone.

Hamilton took a new front wing as the third and final segment began, which is also Hülkenberg's first Q3 in Spain. He qualified seventh with Hamilton in fifth. Verstappen took the pole position, his first Spanish Grand Prix pole position, with Sainz trailing him behind. Lando Norris popped up in third while Oscar Piastri occupied the tenth and final position on the Q3 grid. Alonso had a time good enough for ninth, out-qualified by Lance Stroll in sixth. Gasly was set to enjoy a fourth-position finish, until two separate three-place penalties dropped him to tenth, with teammate Esteban Ocon in seventh.

## Race

### Race Report

The race was held on 4 June 2023, at 15:00 local time (UTC+2).

Polesitter Max Verstappen led from start to finish. Lando Norris made contact with Lewis Hamilton coming into the first corner, damaging his front wing and forcing him to come into the pit lane for a change, which greatly compromised his second-row start. Hamilton's floor was also damaged. Hamilton's teammate George Russell was noted by stewards for gaining an advantage on the opening chicane and jumping five cars; no investigation was necessary. In an early stop, Valtteri Bottas swapped his softs for hards as Charles Leclerc, who started from pit-lane, passed Alexander Albon for sixteenth; Lance Stroll was running as high as third until Hamilton passed him.

Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hülkenberg swapped their softs for hards on lap 9 with the Alfa driver overtaking the Haas. Esteban Ocon soon followed into the pits. Carlos Sainz Jr. came in on lap 16 for mediums, prompting a confused response from the Ferrari driver; meanwhile Leclerc put on softs. Sergio Pérez soon found himself behind Fernando Alonso, with the Aston soon putting on softs. Norris soon returned to the pits with mediums in-hand; Hamilton followed with mediums and rejoined behind Sainz. With drivers coming in for their stops, Verstappen and Pérez led a 1–2 for Red Bull with Sainz in third; furthermore, Verstappen had pulled such a large gap he swapped for hards by lap 26 and did not lose the lead to his teammate. However, Pérez would drop to ninth after a stop for hards, and soon passed Alonso with the aid of DRS. His tyres degrading as he went, Stroll decided to take the hards and rejoined in thirteenth. Meanwhile, Oscar Piastri went into the pits along with Pierre Gasly.
By lap 50, Sainz, Alonso, Russell, Hamilton and Pérez all swapped their compounds while Verstappen was shown a black and white flag due to three different track limits violations. Ocon pulled a defense on Alonso, which his former teammate was able to evade. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda was given a five-second penalty due to what was deemed a dangerous defensive move on Zhou, dropping him out of the points from P9. Verstappen would take the fastest lap and win the race ahead of Hamilton and Russell, earning him his third career Grand Slam.

## Notes

1. ↑ Pierre Gasly received two three-place grid penalties for impeding Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen in Q2.
2. ↑ Charles Leclerc qualified 19th, but he received a 15-place grid penalty for exeeding his quota of power unit elements. He was then required to start the race from the pit lane due to changes made to the set up of the suspension under parc fermé.
3. ↑ Logan Sargeant qualified 20th, but he was required to start the race from the pit lane due to changes made to the set up of the suspension under parc fermé
4. ↑ Includes one point for fastest lap.
5. ↑ Yuki Tsunoda finished 9th, but he received a five-second time penalty for forcing Zhou Guanyu off the track.