Max Verstappen finishes fourth in Spain as Lewis Hamilton claims first Ferrari win

Max Verstappen finished fourth in the Barcelona Grand Prix on Sunday. It was an uneventful race for the Red Bull driver, with him spending most of the race in fifth place until season leader Kimi Antonelli dropped out in the final laps. The race was won by Lewis Hamilton, his first as a Ferrari driver.

Verstappen was looking to bounce back from a disastrous race last weekend in Monaco, where he was forced to retire the car at the race start. He began this race in fifth place, and that is where he remained after the race start. George Russell held on to pole position after the start, with Hamilton staying in second place.

Red Bull and Verstappen opted for soft tires to start the race, with most drivers choosing to start with hard tires. This showed in the 12th lap when Verstappen started to struggle with his tires while defending his fifth place from Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. “I am even wobbling on the straight, which is quite impressive,” Verstappen told his team.

This led to his first pitstop a lap later. Verstappen changed to medium tires. He came out in ninth place, but he quickly went past his teammate Isack Hadjar and climbed to fifth with Oscar Piastri and Leclerc going into the pits.

He took a second pitstop quite soon after, with the medium tires not working as planned. The four-time world champion switched to hard tires on the 30th lap. The pitstop was not great from Red Bull, with Verstappen coming out in seventh place.

A virtual safety car was called in the 41st lap when Fernando Alonso was forced to retire from his home race. This led to Verstappen moving to medium tires for the final part of the race.

Verstappen climbed a place after Kimi Antonelli’s car gave up on him in the 63rd lap. The Italian had just passed his teammate Russell to climb to second place.

This resulted in a fourth-place finish for Verstappen, with Russell finishing second and Lando Norris of McLaren closing out the podium.