[Epoch Times, May 23, 2022](Epoch Times reporter Wang Yezhi comprehensive report) On May 22, local time, the sixth round of the F1 season, the Spanish Grand Prix, was held at the Catalunya Circuit. Competition contest. The Red Bull drivers took the top two spots, with Max Verstappen winning three straight and teammate Sergio Perez in second. Mercedes British driver George Russell was third, finishing on the podium for the third time in his career. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who started from pole position, retired due to car failure.
Ferrari takes pole position after 14 years
At the end of February this year, the teams completed pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. Circuit de Catalunya is a compound track with 16 different types of corners. The organizers modified the 10th turn last year, increasing the total length of the track to 4.675 kilometers, but the length of a single lap is in F1. The calendar is still relatively short.
In Saturday’s qualifying session, Ferrari driver Leclerc ran the final lap of 1:18.750, overtaking Verstappen to take pole position, which is also his fourth pole position of the season. Verstappen and Sainz were 0.323 seconds behind and 0.416 seconds behind, placing second and third.
It is worth mentioning that this is the first time the Ferrari team has taken pole position at the Catalunya circuit after a lapse of 14 years. The last time the “Red Prancing Horse” took pole position in Spain was in 2008 by Finnish racing driver Raikkonen.
The pole position didn’t make Leclerc happy, though, as Ferrari has been unable to address the issue of premature tire failure. In the past few races, Leclerc’s F1-75 has been on par with Red Bull’s RB18 in lap speed, and has a slight advantage on the straights, but in long-distance races, Ferrari’s cars always face The problem of premature tire decay.
Leclerc withdraws from the lead
In the race on Sunday, the five red lights went out and the race officially started. Entering the first corner, Leclerc kept the top spot, Verstappen followed, and Perez, who started fifth, moved up one place to fifth.
On the 7th lap, Ferrari driver Sainz made a low-level error, the car slipped off the track, and the ranking dropped to 11th and fell out of the points area. On the 9th lap, Verstappen made the same mistake as Sainz at turn 4, drove the car into the gravel area, and returned to the track, behind his teammate Perez, ranking fourth .
Since Perez was unable to surpass Russell, the Red Bull team let Verstappen and Perez switch positions, and Verstappen attacked Russell. On the 14th lap, the two pitted in the same circle. After leaving the station, Russell still stood in front of Verstappen, ranking fourth and fifth respectively.
Verstappen has been unable to overtake Russell due to a malfunction of the DRS system in Verstappen’s car. On the 18th lap, Perez made a pit stop and was still in fourth place after leaving the station. At this point, Leclerc, who was leading, was already 30 seconds ahead of Russell, who was second. On the 22nd lap, Leclerc made a pit stop, and after leaving the station, he still ranked first, maintaining a 5.2-second lead.
On the 24th lap, Verstappen overtook Russell at Turn 1, but his opponent immediately grabbed the position back, and the two cars were in an inextricable battle. On the 27th lap, Leclerc, who had been in the leading position, broke down and drove straight back to the pit lane to withdraw from the race.
On the 29th lap, Verstappen completed the second stop and was in fourth place after leaving the station. Russell was leading at this time, followed by Perez. On the 31st lap, Perez took the straight and passed Russell to the first place. Verstappen easily surpassed Bottas, returned to the top three, and continued to chase Russell.
On the 36th lap, Verstappen chased behind Russell, Russell directly chose to pit, Verstappen rose to second. Afterwards, Perez also pitted on medium tires and came out second. So far, Red Bull has occupied the top two positions.
On the 49th lap, Perez, who received the suggestion of the team to let the car, gave up the leading position to his teammate Verstappen. “It’s not fair, but it’s OK,” he said on the radio.
In the end, Verstappen took the lead in crossing the line to win the championship, teammate Perez finished second, and Russell ranked third. Due to the overheating of the car, Hamilton slowed down in order to protect the engine and gave up the position to Sainz, finishing fifth. Ranked sixth to tenth, the drivers with corresponding points are: Bottas, O’Connell, Norris, Alonso and Yutaka Kakuta.
After this station, Verstappen overtook Leclerc with 110 points and climbed to the top of the driver’s standings; the latter was second with 104 points; Red Bull Mexico’s Perez ranked third with 85 points. In the team rankings, Red Bull ranked first with 195 points; Ferrari ranked second with 169 points, and Mercedes ranked third with 120 points.
Responsible editor: Zheng Huang