Spanish Grand Prix 2023: Driver Performances and Verdicts

The Madring will not go down as an all-time classic, but as a character test it was brutal. Low grip, awkward strategies, a virtual safety car that sliced the race in half and shuffled the pack. Some handled it. Some were swallowed by it.

Here’s how the grid really fared at the first Spanish Grand Prix at this new, unforgiving venue.

Lando Norris – Started 1st, Finished 3rd

Verdict: Only bad luck cost him victory.

Norris produced a qualifying lap that stunned the paddock. McLaren knew it didn’t have the fastest car over one lap, yet he forced it onto pole with a lap that was already on the verge of legendary before a small rear slide at the final corner cost him three tenths. That mistake denied him an all-time great lap, but not pole.

He launched well from the less grippy pole slot, defended hard, then built a commanding lead. In pure race pace, he had the field covered. The problem arrived in race control rather than Turn 1. The virtual safety car landed at exactly the wrong moment, stripping him of the advantage he had earned and, ultimately, the win that pace alone said he deserved.

Late on he chased Max Verstappen, but overtaking here was a near-impossibility and Verstappen is rarely an easy mark. Norris pressed, probed, but never found the door open. He left a fraction on the table in qualifying and got punished by timing in the race. The combination turned a dominant drive into a frustrating third.

Pierre Gasly – Started 9th, Finished 7th

Verdict: Probably his best through-weekend execution in F1.

Gasly’s weekend never looked spectacular on the surface, but dig into the detail and it was outstanding. After a scare in La Monumental on his first Q2 run, he regrouped and delivered what he himself called one of his best laps to drag the Alpine into Q3, beating team-mate Pierre Gasly and topping the midfield.

He then outqualified Arvid Lindblad in Q3 to secure the best the car could realistically offer. In the race he led the midfield, defended firmly, and even overachieved by a place by keeping Oscar Piastri behind.

He did leave a couple of tenths on the table in Q3, the biggest gap to theoretical best of any driver, but it didn’t change his grid slot. With overtaking so tough, the fact he couldn’t find a way past Gabriel Bortoleto and then Liam Lawson barely counts against him. This was about execution, not fireworks, and he nailed it.

Esteban Ocon – Started 13th, Finished 11th

Verdict: A well-executed weekend that merited a point.

Ocon squeezed everything out of a Haas that simply didn’t quite have the legs of the Audi in qualifying, ending Q2 three tenths off Bortoleto. He then did what he so often does on Sundays: launched well, muscled his way to 11th at the start and was effectively running in the points once Lewis Hamilton retired.

His race was undone not by a mistake, but by technology. Haas’s less sophisticated pit equipment cost him a place to Nico Hulkenberg in the VSC pit cycle. Without that, a point looked almost guaranteed.

Comparisons with Ollie Bearman were skewed by the rookie’s self-inflicted qualifying absence, but nothing in Ocon’s weekend suggested he left meaningful time on the table. In the eighth-best car, he came close to the maximum.

Max Verstappen – Started 3rd, Finished 2nd

Verdict: Largely made the most of the Red Bull.

This was not a weekend of Red Bull dominance, but Verstappen still dragged the car into the fight. He squeezed most of the available performance out of the RB in qualifying, though like many, he probably had a sliver more in hand.

On Sunday he did what champions do: he defended. Norris was quicker, the track was tight, and yet Verstappen kept the McLaren behind. Even without the VSC shuffle that moved him ahead, a podium was about as much as the package merited.

His aggressive first-corner move always looked likely to end with a chicane cut and a reset, and that sequence ultimately left him behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who also benefited when Verstappen had to cede position to Hamilton. But once the race settled, Verstappen’s execution was sharp. The car wasn’t the star. He still took second.

Lewis Hamilton – Started 2nd, Finished 1st

Verdict: No question about his pace, but a little untidiness.

Hamilton left Madrid with the winner’s trophy and the clearest possible statement inside Mercedes. He was the faster of the two silver cars all weekend, his pace advantage over George Russell decisive.

His race management was calm and assured. He sat behind long-running Charles Leclerc when he needed to, waited for the strategy to unfold and then struck when circumstances swung his way. Luck played its part – the timing of the VSC delivered him the track position that proved crucial over Verstappen and Norris – but his underlying speed gave that fortune something to work with.

The blemishes came early. A frenetic first lap saw him cut both Turn 1 and Turn 5, leaving him shuffled back to third. It was messy, not decisive, and once the chaos faded his authority returned. The win owed something to timing, but the pace was his.

George Russell – Started 5th, Finished 4th

Verdict: No major negatives, but still not at his absolute best.

Russell arrived with a handicap, forced to use older-spec power unit components after his Monza crash. Even so, he missed Hamilton’s qualifying time by just 0.005s. That tiny margin also hinted there was still a little more in his pocket, particularly in the early part of the lap where his prep wasn’t perfect.

In the race he did what the car allowed. He kept it clean, ran long on the hard tyres and executed well, but once Hamilton retired and the strategic picture settled, fourth looked inevitable. There was no glaring error, no big miss, just a sense that his ceiling this weekend sat a touch below his team-mate’s.

Sergio Perez – Started 18th, Finished DNF

Verdict: The stronger Cadillac driver in a curtailed weekend.

Perez’s advantage over Valtteri Bottas in qualifying looked huge on paper, but even stripped of Bottas’s traffic woes, Perez always carried the sharper edge in the Cadillac. His final lap in qualifying was strong, and he headed into Sunday as the clear reference in that garage.

He then put together a solid race, gaining early ground in the Turn 1 chaos and settling into a chase of Alex Albon. A water leak in the power unit cut it all short. He slowed, then retired.

There was no meaningful downside beyond that. He didn’t get the chance to show what the second half of the race might have brought.

Alex Albon – Started 16th, Finished 15th

Verdict: A strong weekend, with the FP3 wall-clip the one negative.

Albon’s Friday was a mess of deployment issues that left him adrift of Carlos Sainz. On Saturday morning he then clipped the wall early in FP3, costing himself precious running.

When it mattered, he responded. His Q1 lap was excellent, a big step from practice and just enough to edge Sainz by 0.005s. Williams didn’t have the pace for more than 16th in qualifying, especially with Albon lacking a fresh set of softs for Q2, so the ceiling was low.

In the race he drove what the car allowed. No drama, no major errors, just a clean run to a position that flattered neither him nor the machinery. Given the early setbacks, this was a quietly impressive salvage job.

Fernando Alonso – Started 17th, Finished 17th

Verdict: A decent weekend, but perhaps could have got the Aston Martin into Q2.

Alonso looked like the quicker Aston Martin driver from the first laps of practice and never really relinquished that status. He showcased the car’s strengths in the twisty sections, even as its straight-line weakness cost him dearly.

Qualifying left a small regret. On his final lap he dropped a tenth and a half in the final sector compared to his personal best, the margin that tipped the Q2 fight in Albon’s favour. It was the kind of tiny slip that bites hard on a tight circuit.

His race was then compromised by deployment issues and a front wing change after contact from Sainz. From there, it became an exercise in perseverance rather than opportunity.

Charles Leclerc – Started 4th, Finished DNF

Verdict: Had the pace to achieve more, but never showed it when it counted.

Leclerc’s weekend promised more than it delivered. A crash in FP3 cost him half the session and his qualifying simulation run, despite his determined – and against-team-orders – attempt to drag the damaged car back to the pits. It set him back when precision was vital.

Qualifying ended up solid rather than sparkling. He had, by most measures, the stronger underlying pace of the Ferrari pair, but a small mistake early in the lap cost him time and left him short of what he could have achieved.

On Sunday, brake trouble ended his race and wiped away any chance to convert that latent speed into a result. The ingredients were there; the final dish never made it to the table.

Arvid Lindblad – Started 10th, Finished 9th

Verdict: FP2 crash had significant consequences, but Lindblad recovered well.

Lindblad’s Friday speed came with a price. His FP2 crash at Turn 13, when the rear snapped instantly on turn-in, robbed him of valuable running and left a confidence hangover that delayed his FP3 appearance until the closing stages.

Even so, he dragged himself into Q3, a notable achievement given he admitted he still lacked full confidence. In the race he jumped Piastri at the start and ran ahead in the first stint, then later had to yield when the McLaren arrived on fresher mediums.

He finished by fending off Hulkenberg to secure ninth. The crash hurt his preparation, but his response underlined why so many rate him.

Nico Hulkenberg – Started 11th, Finished 10th

Verdict: A solid weekend’s work, putting the Audi where it should have been.

Hulkenberg edged his team-mate in a Q2 battle where neither Audi hit its absolute peak, winning that intra-team duel by 0.165s. Slipping into Q3 was possible, but not by much, and he fell just short.

On Sunday he made the most of starting on softs and the well-timed VSC to carve out a points finish. Late on he had a faint sniff of a move on Lindblad, but the track’s overtaking difficulty made that more theoretical than real.

Across the weekend he was marginally the stronger Audi driver and brought the car home roughly where it belonged.

Liam Lawson – Started 8th, Finished 6th

Verdict: Solid but unspectacular, with an unobtrusively effective race.

Lawson’s qualifying pattern told its own story. Each time Verstappen stepped up, Lawson couldn’t quite follow, ending up 0.352s adrift. Respectable, but short of what a true front-running partner would deliver, even with this only his third Red Bull outing.

He lost out to Franco Colapinto at the start, then quickly corrected that with an important early pass. Staying out on hards under the VSC proved a sound call, especially once Bortoleto held up Colapinto and opened the door for Lawson to finish ahead.

It was the kind of race that looks quiet on television but earns nods on the debrief. Effective, tidy, just not headline-grabbing.

George Russell (Antonelli) – Started 6th, Finished 5th

Verdict: A step back from Antonelli in terms of pace.

Russell’s weekend was clean, but the comparison that mattered did him no favours. At no point did he look on Antonelli’s level over a lap. In Q3 he overcooked the tyres at Turn 11 on his final run, losing time he could ill afford, but he was already sliding away from his team-mate before that.

Strategically, he was unlucky. Starting on hards was a deliberate gamble to keep options open in case of an early interruption. When Leclerc ahead mirrored that choice and the VSC timing forced him into a stop and then a second one – with mediums lacking the range – his race became boxed in.

He did at least pull off one of the weekend’s rare clean overtakes, passing Lawson after the Red Bull’s second stop. The execution was there; the raw pace, relative to Antonelli, was not.

Oscar Piastri – Started 7th, Finished 8th

Verdict: A lacklustre weekend.

Piastri’s race unravelled before the first lap was done. Front-wing damage in the opening-lap skirmish compromised his afternoon, though he did at least manage to clear Lindblad once he switched to the hard/medium strategy without VSC assistance.

The larger issue lay in pace. He never got close to Norris’s level across the weekend. That gulf left him stuck in traffic and, late on, unable to find a way past Colapinto despite the motivation of a recovering drive.

This was one to park quickly.

Kevin Magnussen – Started 12th, Finished 13th

Verdict: A middling weekend, marginally worse than Hulkenberg’s.

Magnussen’s race craft surfaced in a long, tidy stint on hards where he kept the faster Colapinto behind. The VSC timing hurt him given his starting tyre, and there was little he could do about that.

The bigger frustration came on Saturday. He admitted he didn’t extract the maximum from the car in qualifying, especially with a too-cautious approach into Turn 1 that put him behind Hulkenberg from the outset.

A poor start, exacerbated by the hard tyres, dropped him to 15th and deepened the hole. From there, his race was more about damage limitation than opportunity.

Yuki Tsunoda – Started 14th, Finished 12th

Verdict: Poor qualifying defined his weekend.

Tsunoda’s underlying pace in race trim looked fine. At times, better than that. But when it counted in qualifying, he simply couldn’t unlock it.

He struggled to understand why a car that felt strong in FP3 suddenly lost grip in qualifying. Poor tyre prep on the outlap played a key role, leaving him with a lacklustre lap and a grid position that never matched his true speed.

On Sunday he showed good pace on the hards, but the VSC timing left him stranded on that tyre when others gained. A needless five-second penalty for speeding in the pits added a blot to the copybook, even if it cost him only time, not a place.

Valtteri Bottas – Started 19th, Finished 18th

Verdict: Bad luck in both qualifying and the race, but still short of Perez.

The raw qualifying gap to Perez – a massive 2.098s – painted a misleading picture. Bottas had to rely on his first run with the second ruined by traffic and the third by Sainz impeding him. Even so, Perez looked the sharper Cadillac driver all weekend.

The race offered him little chance to respond. Early damage, not of his making, hobbled his car and turned his afternoon into a slog.

Circumstances hurt him, but even allowing for that, he never really threatened Perez’s level.

Lance Stroll – Started 21st, Finished DNF

Verdict: No chance in qualifying or the race, but no sign of Alonso-level speed either.

Stroll’s weekend was compromised before it started. A water leak in Q1 prevented him from setting a time, and with a 40-place grid penalty for power-unit changes hanging over him, single-lap performance was almost irrelevant.

He briefly ran ahead of Alonso early in the race before falling behind approaching Turn 13, but any comparison between the two evaporated once brake problems and debris damage took hold. His race became meaningless in performance terms long before the flag.

There was no realistic opportunity to shine, yet at no stage in practice did he show Alonso-like pace either. A write-off of a weekend, without even a flash of what might have been.

Daniel Ricciardo – Started 15th, Finished 14th

Verdict: A nothing weekend thanks to qualifying struggles and race damage.

Ricciardo’s qualifying unravelled before he’d even started his final lap. He never found comfort on fresh tyres, thriving only on scrubbed sets, and the 0.880s gap to Lindblad told its own story. He simply couldn’t tap into the car’s peak grip.

The race offered no redemption. Clattered at the first corner by Sainz, he picked up damage that locked him into a compromised run. His pace, given the state of the car, was respectable, but the ceiling was brutally low.

By the flag, there was little to analyse beyond misfortune and missed opportunity.

Carlos Sainz – Started 20th, Finished DNF

Verdict: Pace was fine, but too many errors.

Sainz arrived looking quick. His Friday pace backed that up and he went into qualifying with optimism. It never translated.

The team accepted responsibility for not warning him about Bottas in qualifying, but a driver always carries some responsibility for awareness, even with limited visibility. The upshot was a ruined lap for Bottas and a messy session for Sainz, who also ended up behind Albon by 0.005s and blamed timing and a straight-line deficit.

The race then spiralled. He got caught by the inevitable Turn 1 concertina and then hit Alonso, damaging his own race beyond repair. On raw speed he was in the mix; on execution, he fell short.

Ollie Bearman – Started 22nd (pitlane), Finished 16th

Verdict: A self-inflicted uphill battle, partially redeemed by a solid race.

Bearman’s weekend collapsed with one heavy mistake. After an earlier warning on Friday when he clipped the front-left at Turn 15, he tagged the inside wall in the Turn 10/11 sweep in FP3 and triggered a big crash. The damage wiped out his qualifying and forced a pitlane start.

From there, he could only race. He did so well enough, making two on-track passes – albeit on damaged cars in Bottas and Stroll – and bringing the car home without further drama.

The race drive showed composure. The crash ensured it came far too late to matter.