Red Bull’s three-time world champion makes it seven wins from 10 races by defeating Lando Norris in Barcelona.
Red Bull’s three-time world champion Max Verstappen has won the Spanish Grand Prix from McLaren’s pole-sitter Lando Norris to extend his lead in motor racing’s world championship.
Lewis Hamilton completed the podium at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit for the Mercedes seven-time former champion’s first podium of the season on Sunday.
The racing may be closer than the past two seasons, but Verstappen always seems to pull it out of the bag when it matters most.
This was his 61st career win, the seventh of the season, and the fourth at the track where he first shot onto the Formula One (F1) scene as a teenager in 2016.
Verstappen now leads the F1 drivers’ championship with 219 points. Norris moves into second in the championship standings with 150 points, leapfrogging Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who has 148 points.
The victory was Verstappen’s sixth of the season, extending his lead in the F1 Drivers’ Championship to 56 points.
Red Bull’s triple world champion Max Verstappen has completed a Canadian Grand Prix hat-trick of victories on a wet, wild and tricky race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Verstappen, who started on the front row alongside Mercedes pole sitter George Russell on Sunday, stayed clear of trouble on a day of changing conditions, snatching the lead from McLaren’s Lando Norris on the final pit stops.
The Dutchman then grimly hung on to claim his sixth victory from nine races this season and the 60th of his Formula One career.
It was another brilliant drive from the 26-year-old, who dealt with constantly changing weather, pit stop battles and challenges from McLaren and Mercedes while wrestling with his Red Bull’s suspension.
After Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Williams’s Alex Albon came together, bringing out the safety car for a second time, Verstappen pulled away on the restart and finished 3.879 seconds ahead of Norris while Russell won a nail-biting last-laps duel with teammate Lewis Hamilton to complete the podium.
Verstappen now leads the Formula One (F1) Drivers’ Championship with 194 points. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is next best, at 138 points.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the only Formula One driver born and raised in the area, finally wins his home race in Monte Carlo.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won the Monaco Grand Prix to become the first home winner of Formula One’s showcase race since Louis Chiron raced around the city streets in 1931.
Sunday’s thrilling victory was the first time the 26-year-old had stood on the Monaco podium in six attempts, and it came after two standing starts from pole position in a race halted when first-lap collisions took out a fifth of the field.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished second, 7.1 seconds behind, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr third.
Red Bull’s championship leader and 2023 Monaco winner Max Verstappen started and finished sixth, only the third time in eight races this season that the triple world champion has been beaten.
Leclerc’s Monaco triumph ends years of frustration at his home race by taking the jewel in the Formula One calendar from pole at his third attempt.
A tearful Leclerc said: “No words can explain this. It means a lot, it’s the race that made me dream of becoming an F1 driver.”
McLaren’s Lando Norris has won the first Formula One race of his career with a shock victory over world champion Max Verstappen in the Miami Grand Prix.
Breathing life into an F1 season that risked becoming a one-man story again, Norris, in his 110th race for McLaren, beat Verstappen by more than seven seconds, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishing third.
Verstappen, who began on pole, had won four of the opening five races of the season and leads the world championship standings.
It looked like business as usual with the Dutchman, who had won the previous two Miami races, leading until lap 24 when he pitted and Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri took the lead.
Australian Piastri himself went into the pits four laps later, allowing Norris to grab the lead and the British driver never looked back.
Crucially, Norris was able to pit during a safety car on lap 30, earning him a valuable time advantage which he never relinquished.
The safety car came after Kevin Magnussen clipped Logan Sargeant, sending the American Williams driver into the wall and bringing a yellow flag.
Norris, who had 15 podiums before his first win, took full advantage of the safety car and with Verstappen struggling to catch up, he secured his maiden victory.
It was the first time Verstappen had been beaten on track when he finished the race since Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won in Singapore in September last year.
Norris was hoisted in the air by the McLaren mechanics as his long wait for a victory in the sport came to an end.
“About time huh?” said Norris, “I knew on Friday that we had the pace … today we managed to put it together. We had the perfect strategy. It all paid off,” he added.
“I guess a lot of people doubted me along the way. I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the last five years, my short career, but today we pulled it all together, so this is all for the team.
“I stuck with McLaren because I could believe in them and I did believe in them and today proved exactly that,” he added.
Pulling into the pit lane Norris was mobbed by his team, congratulated by the other drivers and cheered by a massive crowd at the Miami International Autodrome.
The nearest Norris had come previously to winning a Grand Prix was in Sochi, Russia in 2021 when he led in the latter stages before failing to make a tyre change early in the rain, costing him dearly.
Verstappen, who had complained about lack of grip in qualification and during Sunday’s race, said his Red Bull had been unable to keep up with Norris once the McLaren driver switched to hard tyres.
“They just had more pace, Lando was flying. It was incredibly difficult for us, but on the bad days P2, I’ll take it right?
“I’m very happy for Lando, it’s been a long time coming and it’s not going to be his last one. He definitely deserves it,” said the Dutchman.
“Very often he ran very close to it, but for one reason or another, he didn’t make it. But today he did an incredible job, and the whole weekend he has been on it,” said the Ferrari driver.
As in the first two years of the Miami Grand Prix, held around Hard Rock Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, the race attracted plenty of celebrities.
Former France international footballer and coach Zinedine Zidane, singer Ed Sheeran, Super Bowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes and former US President Donald Trump were among those spotted at the race. Trump visited the McLaren garage before the race.
Trump, who visited the McLaren garage prior to the race, was delighted to back a winner, telling Norris later he was his lucky charm.
“He saw me after and he came to congratulate me,” said Norris, who had told his grandmother before coming to Miami that he was going to win a race.
Norris’s parents were ecstatic, though they weren’t in Miami to witness the moment.
McLaren pit crew members celebrate after Lando Norris’s win [Rebecca Blackwell/AP]
“The cider’s flowing in Somerset! A big celebration,” Adam Norris told Sky Sports. “I was working out it’s probably about 900 races I’ve been to over the last 16 years.
“It’s brilliant. So happy for him.”
Anthony Hamilton, another father instrumental in the success of his son – seven times world champion Lewis – also texted Norris congratulations.
Norris was still finalising plans on how he was going to celebrate his maiden victory, but he was already thinking about a second win.
“This only happens once when you take your first win. Tonight is going to be a good night,” said Norris, confirming team boss Zak Brown had delayed the flight home until Monday so there would be a proper celebration.
Sainz finished ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc after Red Bull’s Verstappen retired on the fourth lap with engine fire.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has ended Red Bull’s Formula 1 winning streak by winning the Australian Grand Prix in a triumphant return to the circuit two weeks after appendicitis surgery, which kept him out of the previous race in Saudi Arabia.
The Spaniard took advantage of Verstappen’s early retirement – his first in two years – due to a fiery mechanical failure.
Sainz, who started on the front row alongside Verstappen, kept his place into turn one but passed the Dutchman on lap two at turn nine for the lead and took control once his rival retired two laps later with a fiery mechanical failure.
Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race last season.
Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz of Spain steers his car into pit lane as his teammates celebrate after winning the Australian Grand Prix [Scott Barbour/AP]
In Melbourne, he held off teammate Charles Leclerc before a final-lap crash by Mercedes driver George Russell triggered a virtual safety car and eased the Spaniard’s path to victory.
“It was a really good race. I felt really good out there,” said a thrilled Sainz.
“Of course a bit stiff and especially physically it wasn’t the easiest but I was lucky that I was more or less on my own and I could manage my pace, manage the tyres, manage everything, and it wasn’t the toughest race of all.
“But very happy, very proud of the team, and happy to be in a one-two with Charles here.”
Lando Norris was third for McLaren, thwarting fourth-placed teammate Oscar Piastri’s hopes of a first podium by an Australian driver at the F1 race.
Verstappen, the winner in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, started on pole for the third time this season but retired on the fourth lap with a brake problem as flames leapt out of the right rear of his car. He was on a nine-race winning streak.
It was Verstappen’s first Did Not Finish (DNF) since retiring from Albert Park in the 2022 race and ended his run of nine successive race wins.
Verstappen said he was basically driving with the handbrake on from the start.
“That’s why already it felt the car was really weird to drive in some corners. It was just very snappy,” said the Dutchman.
Red Bull have now suffered two defeats in 26 races dating back to the last round of 2022.
Mechanics work to extinguish a fire in Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s car [Scott Barbour/AP]
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton was also forced to retire early with a power unit problem after starting 11th on the grid following his worst Melbourne qualifying since 2010.
His teammate Russell completed a dismal day for the Silver Arrows by skidding into gravel at turn six and crashing into the barrier to wreck his car and bring out the virtual safety car.
Sergio Perez finished fifth for Red Bull, one ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who started 10th on the grid and edged seventh-placed teammate Lance Stroll.
Alonso was later summoned to the stewards over Russell’s crash.
The Dutchman made it nine wins in as many races as he cruised to a comfortable victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from pole position as Red Bull continued their dominant start to the Formula One season with a second one-two in as many races.
Mexican Sergio Perez was runner-up on Saturday under the Jeddah Corniche floodlights, last year’s winner taking the chequered flag 13.643 seconds behind his triple world champion teammate.
It was the first time Verstappen, winner of a record 19 of 22 races last year, has won the first two races of a season.
Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari, taking a bonus point for the fastest lap and earning his first podium of the season.
The victory was a ninth in a row for Verstappen, dating back to Japan last September, and the 56th of the 26-year-old Dutch driver’s career.
It was also his 100th career podium while Red Bull’s 115th win lifted them ahead of Williams in fourth place on the all-time list.
“Overall, a fantastic weekend for the whole team and myself. I felt really good with the car and it was the same in the race,” Verstappen said.
The United Kingdom’s Oliver Bearman, making his F1 race debut as Ferrari’s youngest-ever rookie at 18 years and 305 days old after Spaniard Carlos Sainz was sidelined by appendicitis, finished seventh and was voted Driver of the Day.
“Today he’s been incredible,” said Leclerc of his temporary teammate. “It’s hugely impressive and I’m sure he’s extremely proud. Everybody has noticed how talented he is and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he’s in F1.”
Oscar Piastri finished fourth for McLaren ahead of Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, George Russell of Mercedes and Bearman, with two more Britons, Lando Norris and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, taking eighth and ninth for McLaren and Mercedes, with Nico Hulkenberg taking the final point for Haas.
Verstappen, Leclerc and Alonso in action with drivers at the start of the race [Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters]
‘One of the more physical races’
After his ninth consecutive victory, Verstappen said it was “one of the more physical races, a tough one”.
The safety car was deployed on lap seven after Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll hit the wall and then crashed into the barriers at turn 22.
The Canadian walked away unhurt as all but four drivers, including Norris and Hamilton, dived into the pits.
Norris, who was later cleared of a suspected jumped start off the grid, led when the new Aston Martin Vantage safety car returned to the pits on lap nine but Verstappen was back in front by lap 13 and pulling away.
Perez was handed a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from his first pitstop and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen collected a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Williams’ Alex Albon.
The Dane was later handed another 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage but his main role was to create a sufficient gap behind Hulkenberg for the German to be able to pit and still finish with a precious point.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was told to pit and park on the opening lap due to a suspected gearbox issue, becoming the first retirement of the season after all 20 cars finished the opener in Bahrain a week earlier.
Motorcyling’s premier competition returns to action this weekend as Qatar turns host for the season-opening MotoGP race on Sunday.
The Lusail International Circuit will host an 11-lap sprint race on Saturday and the main 22-lap race on Sunday, with Francesco Bagnaia favourite to clinch his third successive title in the competition’s 75th year.
Bagnaia and his Ducati Lenovo outfit will be the team to beat once again in a season that features 21 rounds, finishing in Valencia, Spain on November 17.
This year’s race will mark Qatar’s 21st MotoGP event as it joined the Grand Prix calendar in 2004.
Here are three major offseason talking points ahead of the all-important Round 1 at Lusail International Circuit:
1. Can Yamaha return to winning ways in 2024?
Winless in 2023, Monster Energy Yamaha have worked hard in the offseason to narrow the gap with the dominant Ducati machinery.
This season could be a make-or-break year for the famous Yamaha brand with the team assembling two of the most gifted riders to supercharge their 2024 campaign: Fabio Quartararo and Yamaha newcomer Alex Rins.
Quartararo, who became France’s first-ever premier-class world champion in 2021, endured a brutal 2023 season, finishing the campaign winless. It was the first time Yamaha failed to win a single Grand Prix since 2003.
Rins’s season was derailed by injury – but not before the Spaniard pulled off an on-track miracle for his underpowered LCR Honda team bike, securing the Japanese manufacturers’ only 2023 victory at the US MotoGP in Texas.
Monster Energy Yamaha were the last team to beat Ducati for a MotoGP world championship during Quatararo’s iconic 2021 title run.
In 2024 pre-season testing in Qatar and Malaysia, there have been positive signs for Yamaha – but so far they still lack the raw, one-lap pace of the Ducati.
During the Qatar Grand Prix, Quartararo and Rins will likely rely on Yamaha’s nimbler handling and braking advantages around the Lusail circuit to challenge the more powerful Ducati bikes. Yamaha is the most successful manufacturer at the Qatar Grand Prix, with 10 MotoGP victories.
Monster Energy Yamaha last won the Qatar MotoGP in 2021.
Fabio Quartararo (left) and Alex Rins at the 2024 Monster Energy Yamaha M1 bike launch at Gerno di Lesmo, Italy on February 3, 2024 [Courtesy of Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Team]
2. Can anyone stop the MotoGP world champion?
Just as he did last year, world champion Francesco Bagnaia heads into a new MotoGP season as the clear title favourite on the back of his 2022 and 2023 world riders’ championships.
Two weeks ago, Bagnaia’s GP24 Ducati was the class of the field in Qatar pre-season testing with the Italian smashing the one-lap record at Lusail.
Now 27, Bagnaia is entering the prime of his career on a spectacular Ducati machine – a frightening proposition for his fellow competitors heading into the 2024 season.
But he won’t have the riders’ championship all his own way.
His Lenovo Ducati teammate, Enea Bastianini, put an injury-ridden 2023 season behind him to record the second-fastest time in Qatar pre-season testing and is primed for a breakout season.
The 2023 MotoGP runner-up Jorge Martin is also riding the same technical specification Ducati as Bagnaia at the satellite Pramac Racing team. Last season, the Spaniard relentlessly battled Bagnaia right through to a final race title showdown in one of the closest MotoGP rider championships ever.
If last season was any guide, then the 2024 MotoGP campaign might turn out to be one of the most competitive title fights in recent history with several highly-talented riders entering the championship mix.
2023 MotoGP World Champion rider Francesco Bagnaia of the Ducati Lenovo Team celebrates after the Valencia Motorcycle Grand Prix, the last race of the season, at the Ricardo Tormo circuit near Valencia, Spain [File: Alberto Saiz/AP]
3. Will Marc Marquez’s bold team switch win him a seventh World MotoGP title in 2024?
He’s the man everyone is talking about ahead of the Qatar MotoGP season opener.
In a sensational move, six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez left huge dollars on the table at the Repsol Honda factory team – the only outfit he had ever rode for in the premier class – to ride with his brother Alex at Gresini Ducati.
Marquez struggled in 2023 – crashing his Honda frequently, failing to record a single race victory and finishing a career-low 14th position in the riders’ championship.
The legendary Spaniard last won the MotoGP riders’ title in 2019 – but since then, it’s all been downhill for Marquez with multiple serious injuries and an underperforming Honda bike resulting in just six, top-three finishes in the past four seasons.
Now 31, and with a clear realisation that the Ducati – any Ducati – is the dominant race machine, Marquez was simply running out of time with Honda to mount a 7th MotoGP title charge.
Marquez showed glimpses of talent in pre-season testing on the Gresini Ducati – but some critics believe he is struggling to master the vastly different technical set-up of the new Italian bike.
Others speculate that the manically competitive Marquez was “foxing” in the pre-season and contend that the Spanish superstar will immediately challenge for race victories.
Exactly how Marquez performs in Qatar on March 9-10 will hold early clues as to his chances of pulling off a surprise world riders’ championship title in 2024.
Gresini Racing’s Spanish rider Marc Marquez steers his bike on the second day of the MotoGP pre-season testing at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail [Karim Jaafar/AFP]
Driver Max Verstappen’s father, Jos, claims Red Bull is ‘in danger of being torn apart’ if Horner stays on as team principal.
Christian Horner’s leadership has been cast into fresh doubt after racing driver Max Verstappen’s father, Jos, claimed Red Bull is “in danger of being torn apart” if the under-fire team principal remains in his role.
A defiant Horner said on Saturday night that he is “absolutely confident” he will stay on as Red Bull boss for the remainder of the Formula One season after overseeing Verstappen lead a one-two finish from teammate Sergio Perez at the opening round in Bahrain.
However, Jos Verstappen, Max’s father and a retired racing driver, claimed “there is tension” in the Red Bull team in comments he made to the Daily Mail newspaper after the race.
“The team is in danger of being torn apart. It can’t go on the way it is. It will explode. He is playing the victim, when he is the one causing the problems,” he said.
During an extraordinary week in Bahrain, Horner was exonerated by Red Bull Racing parent’s company, Red Bull GmbH, following an internal probe into allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”.
But hundreds of WhatsApp messages, appearing to be exchanged between Horner and the complainant, were then leaked to the F1 world.
Jos, the 51-year-old father of Red Bull’s three-time world champion, has denied reports that he is trying orchestrate Horner’s ouster
“That wouldn’t make sense,” he said. “Why would I do that when Max is doing so well here?”
Horner strode hand in hand with wife Geri Halliwell in the paddock one hour and 45 minutes before Saturday’s race.
Red Bull’s majority shareholder, Thai billionaire Chalerm Yoovidhya, also joined the duo on the team’s terrace in a public show of support for Horner.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, flanked by Chalerm Yoovidhya and his wife Daranee Yoovidhya, chat after the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix race in Sakhir, Bahrain [Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters]
Speaking after the chequered flag had fallen, Horner was asked if he is confident he will stay on as Red Bull team principal for the rest of the season. He replied: “Absolutely.”
He continued: “I have the support of an incredible family, an incredible wife, an incredible team and everybody within that team.
“And my focus is on going racing, winning races, and doing the best I can.
“It was a day about starting the season in the best possible way. My focus is on this team, my family, my wife and racing.”
Horner was also quizzed about the leaked Google file that was sent from an anonymous email account to 149 members of the F1 paddock – including FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali and the grid’s nine other team principals, as well as members of the media.
Horner said: “I am not going to comment on anonymous speculative messages from an unknown source. I am not going to comment on what motives whatever person may have for doing this.
“Obviously, it has not been pleasant with some of the unwanted attention, but the focus is very much on the cars and my focus has been on what is happening on track and the result today demonstrates where the focus is.
“There was a full, lengthy internal process that was completed by an independent KC and the grievance that was raised was dismissed. End of. Move on.”
Horner is set to be back in the spotlight in just four days, when the cars hit the track in practice for the next round in Saudi Arabia.
The Formula One team is investigating a complaint of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ against its team principal.
Red Bull are investigating a complaint of alleged “inappropriate behaviour” against their Formula One team boss, Christian Horner, the Austrian energy drink company says in a statement without giving any details about the allegations.
The Briton presided over the most dominant season in Formula One history last year with Max Verstappen taking his third title in a row and the team winning 21 of 22 races.
“After being made aware of certain recent allegations, the company launched an independent investigation,” Red Bull said on Monday.
“This process, which is already under way, is being carried out by an external specialist barrister. The company takes these matters extremely seriously and the investigation will be completed as soon as practically possible.
“It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
The Times newspaper reported Horner, 50, had been accused of inappropriate behaviour by a female colleague, who complained to the team’s parent company.
There was no comment from the team, but Horner, who is married to former Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell, told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he denies the allegations.
Horner has overseen seven drivers world championships and six constructors titles.
Red Bull are due to launch their latest car on February 15 ahead of the new season, which starts in Bahrain on March 2.
Christian Horner with his wife, former Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell, at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas [File: Brian Snyder/Reuters]
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