The F1 circus continues its trek around Europe with Round 9 in Barcelona, the 7th race of the year. Mercedes have made a solid start to the season, but the other teams are closing the gap. Can anyone else mount a challenge for victory? Will Kimi Antonelli continue his 5 race winning streak? Will the stewards measure the pit lane distance correctly?

Barcelona is a circuit that all teams and drivers know extremely well. It's been used in pre-season testing for many years, so teams have a good understanding of how to set up the car. As such, there were rookie drivers taking to track in Free Practice to fulfill teams obligations to run 2x rookie drivers throughout the season. The biggest name being Colton Herta driving for Cadillac. He is starting a journey into proper World Championships from his previous success in Indy Car.

Onto qualifying, the first shock was Fernando Alonso qualifying last for the first time in his career. More surprisingly Lance Stroll managed to lap faster than Alonso! Up at the sharp end in Q3, Charles Leclerc made a mistake which sent him into the barriers on his first flying lap causing a red flag. The other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton had a much better session, being pipped to pole by George Russell by just 0.06s. Russell is looking to get his season back on track after suffering a few poor scoring races, and currently site behind Hamilton in the Championship. Antonelli had another strong qualifying in 3rd with reigning Champion Lando Norris in 4th. The top 4 teams have all improved dramatically, which can be seen by the deficit in qualifying. Liam Lawson in 7th was over 1.5s behind Oscar Piasti in 6th.

Moving onto Sunday, with the fast starting Ferrari on the front row Russell would have to get his elbows out. He managed to fend off Hamilton into turn 1 and kept the lead. Leclerc made up 3 places and Isack Hadjar had a terrible start dropping to 14th from 5th. With a variety of tyre choices throughout the grid, strategy will play an important part.

Hamilton was first to pit, causing a chain reaction with everyone else pitting within a few laps, much to Russell's dismay who had been preserving his medium tyres. The second stint brought a little more excitement. Again, Hamilton pitted early but this time on his own. Ferrari had changed him onto a 3-stop race with the rest sticking with 2-stops. This gave Hamilton the chance put his foot down and show what he can really do. It also meant the Mercedes duo were lying astern. Antonelli quickly closed in on Russell and picked up where they left off in Canada 3 weeks ago. The young Italian was putting a lot of pressure on Russell, but he managed to fend him off going into their final pit stops.

Alonso's day continued to get worse as he stopped on track for another DNF. This brought out the Virtual Safety Car. In my opinion, Ferrari fold under pressure when it comes to making bold strategy calls, but this time they got the whole race spot. Some fortune for Hamilton to get a cheap stop whilst leading the race meant he kept the lead from the squabbling Mercedes. Afterwards, he disappeared leaving the rest a long way behind. The Mercs continued to fight tooth and nail. Just as it was getting interesting, Antonelli suffered an electrical issue bring a premature end to his race. Simultaneously, Leclerc’s bad luck continues as he suffered a power steering problem.

Hamilton wins his first race in scarlet overalls, and his first victory in almost 2 years. Russell finished a distant 2nd, with Norris taking the final podium spot. This is the first all British podium since 1968, with Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees. I’m sure some of you will remember that ;) Hamilton closes in on Antonelli and extends his gap to Russell. On a positive note, no one was found speeding in the pit lane (during the race at least).

A final, slightly self indulgent note. Without going into boring details, the FIA have been measuring the performance of all Power Units (I.E. engines) from each manufacturer to determine which is the best, and which manufacturers will be allowed to develop to catch up. To many people’s surprise, the Red Bull Ford Powertrains came out on top. Not only that, but it was 2% more powerful the Mercedes, and 4% more than the rest. Considering this journey started with a blank sheet of paper and no designs 5 years ago, to an estate of manufacturing and design building producing the “best” power unit on the grid is incredible. Having a PU that was on par with others was an amazing start, but to be considered the benchmark first time is truly incredible. It’s a real testament to everyone who put in blood, sweat and tears to turn the dream into a reality.