2020 Spanish Grand Prix : Max Verstappen Takes Honda To Second Place In Spain
By Honda• Verstappen earns fifth consecutive podium
•Trio of Honda-powered cars score championship points
•Verstappen second in the Formula 1 driver standings
Max Verstappen continued his strong run in the Aston Martin Red Bull Honda as the Formula 1 World Championship journeyed to Barcelona for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, finishing second to earn his fifth consecutive podium result.
Verstappen's strong second-place finish paced a trio of Hondas that earned championship points at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as Alex Albon (8th) and Pierre Gasly (9th) ended their days inside the top 10 after strong efforts.
Starting third Sunday, Verstappen used a great start and slipped ahead of Valtteri Bottas to snare second as the field negotiated the first set of corners. The Dutchman pitted twice for medium Pirellis, including one lightning-quick 1.9-second stop by the Red Bull team, but was equal to the task all day in keeping ahead of Bottas to maintain second place behind race winner Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen held a seven-second gap over Bottas after the Mercedes driver made his final stop but the Honda-powered car never wavered as Verstappen raced home to snare second place.
Verstappen's Red Bull stablemate Alex Albon started sixth and fought through tire issues to snare the eighth spot, earning enough points to move him into a tie for fifth in the title chase.
Pierre Gasly made good use of the 10th-place grid position he earned in the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda, vaulting two positions on the opening lap to take the eighth spot. Gasly ran in the top 10 all day and fought off a strong challenge from Lando Norris over the last five laps to place ninth.
Gasly's teammate Daniil Kvyat started and finished 12th, although he threatened to take 10th before being hit with a late-race time penalty for not heeding the blue 'move-over' flags.
The runner-up finish allowed Verstappen to widen his advantage in the championship to six points over Bottas, and makes him the closest driver to series leader Hamilton. Albon is tied for fifth while Gasly stands 13th after six races. His teammate Kvyat is tied for 15th with two points. The Red Bull squad is solidly in second place in the constructor championship, 72 markers ahead of third-placed Racing Point. AlphaTauri continues to run 7th among constructors.
The teams and drivers of the Formula 1 World Championship will have a week off following three consecutive race weekends before heading to the famed Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the August 30 Belgian Grand Prix.
Toyoharu Tanabe Technical Director, Honda F1
'In today's Spanish Grand Prix, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing finished second with Max, to score their and Honda's fifth consecutive podium finish which is a positive result. Alex had to fight his way through traffic but plenty of overtaking saw him bring home points and, for Scuderia AlphaTauri Pierre Gasly did much the same. Daniil was unlucky to finish just seven seconds outside the points. Overall today, Max and Pierre got the most out of their cars, however we feel strongly that we have to improve our performance to match that of each of our two teams' closest competition. The second triple header of the season has now ended and we have a one week break during which we will work hard, studying the data from the past six races, to try and get better results in the upcoming races.'
Max Verstappen
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda
Start 3rd, Finish: 2nd
It's a great result for us to split the two Mercedes cars today after they have been so quick and I'm very happy with that. Overall, it's been another strong weekend with a good amount of points which we should be happy with. I made a good start and it was important to get past Valtteri (Bottas) early, which I did. I tried everything to stay with Lewis (Hamilton) in the first stint but Lewis was a bit too quick today. From then we focused on our own race and the car felt good. I expected some trouble from Valtteri towards the end when he pitted but I was happy with my tires and he wasn't catching. Second is of course good but that's not why we are here, we are here to win so you can never be fully satisfied unless you do that. At the moment we're in-between the two Mercedes cars and of course we'd like to push Lewis harder but you have to be realistic as they still have the faster car.'
Alex AlbonAston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda
Start: 6th, Finish: 8th
'It was a hard afternoon and I'm not happy with my race. It was really tricky out there and I just didn't have any grip on any tire compound. Each stint I was nursing and looking after the tires but after six or seven laps I just had no grip. It hasn't been an issue this year so we'll need to look at the data and see the reasons behind it. I couldn't stay close enough to cars ahead so I couldn't overtake and I was kind of a sitting duck. Now we need to understand why today was so different to last weekend in the race so we can come back stronger and improve for Spa.'
Pierre GaslyScuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Start: 10th, Finish: 9th
'It was a great race and I'm happy to get another two points for the team this weekend. We had a good start and I managed to pass Charles (Leclerc) and Lando (Norris) in Turn 1 which put me in eighth position. We got held up a bit in the second stint behind other cars in a train of DRS, so we didn't make full use of the prime tires, which was a bit of a shame. However, I think there are a lot of positives to take away from Barcelona, which is quite a challenging track in terms of car performance, and it was nice to be in the mix with the McLarens for most of the race. We can be pleased with our result today and now we start focusing on Spa.'
Daniil KvyatScuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Start: 12th, Finish: 12th
'I can't say it was a satisfying race as it was quite frustrating. I wasn't as comfortable in the car as I usually feel on Sundays. We still need to look into the details and try to understand why. I was happy with my initial start, I had some nice battles with Ferrari and (Daniel) Ricciardo, so I thought there was more for me to take today and finish in a better position. I think there are a few things we can learn from this weekend and we should be able to do well in the next races.'