2024 Spanish GP

Spanish GP: Another Podium and Another Step Forward for the Team

Our momentum continues to build as Lewis and George finish P3 and P4 in Barcelona.

After a good qualifying session in Spain, Lewis and George started the 10th Grand Prix of the season from third and fourth on the grid. As the 66 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya turned into a tyre battle, our Mercedes duo achieved another encouraging result.

A second top-three finish (after taking P2 in the Sprint in China) of the season for Lewis at P3, while George defended P4 bravely and added important points to the championship.

But right from the start. Our duo both started on a used set of Soft tyres. With a rocket start and an equally strong move in Turn 1, George took the lead. Lewis had a slightly slow getaway and dropped back to P4. With DRS, Max Verstappen overtook George again in Turn 1. However, our Mercedes duo focused on tyre management, which was the key to a good result here in Spain.

Halfway through the race, our Mercedes duo were running P3 and P4. On lap 37, George pitted for Hard tyres and rejoined the track in P7. Lewis stayed out to build up a tyre advantage over Sainz. With George reporting some sliding on the Hard tyre, Lewis opted to change to his used Soft tyre on lap 44.

With fresh tyres, Lewis stormed through the field, overtaking Sainz and quickly closing in on his team-mate. In a bold but fair move, Lewis passed George in Turn 1 and was on course for his first podium (apart from P2 in the sprint in China) of the 2024 season.

Meanwhile, George had to give his all in the closing stages of the race to try to hold off Ferrari's Leclerc. Due to tyre age and compound offset, it was a slightly unfair battle.

Nevertheless, George managed to hold on to his position under immense pressure. Lewis kept his P3, while the Grand Prix was won by Max Verstappen. A strong race to bring home P3 and P4 with a much improved package since those first few races.

F1 continues in just one week's time. For the second part of the triple-header, we head to Austria for the eleventh Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

George Russell

There were a few things that went against us today, unfortunately. We had a slow first pit stop, and then the Hard tyre didn’t feel great in the final stint. Nevertheless, as a team our aim was to maximise what we could achieve today, and we did that with P3 and P4. Lewis drove a great race today and we take away the huge positives from what have been a very promising last couple of races.

I was dreaming of making a move like I did into turn one last night. I didn’t think it would quite come to fruition in the way that it did! I remember Fernando (Alonso) making a similar start in 2013. We had a headwind so I knew I could brake quite late. It was a very satisfying move and felt good to lead a race again. Unfortunately, Max (Verstappen) was too fast for us today, as was Lando. But two podiums in two races is very encouraging as we head to Austria.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It's been a solid weekend from the drivers and the whole team. We felt like we could have been closer to pole than we were yesterday, but ultimately, we didn't have enough pace to challenge Max (Verstappen) and Lando (Norris) today. Nevertheless, it was good to get on the podium with Lewis. With George just behind in fourth, that completed a decent points haul for us.

George had a great start and made a very impressive move on the brakes around the outside iunto turn one. Lewis’s start wasn’t quite as good, but he did a good job to recover around turns one and two to get back to fourth. It was evident fairly on that we were having to push pretty hard to not fall back from Verstappen and that meant we had to make our pit stops a little earlier than planned. By the time we got into the second stint, our focus was on ensuring we beat the Ferraris. Lewis was able to do that comfortably in the end and managed his tyres well in the final stint to do the same. We're encouraged by the fact the car has worked well at Montreal and here in Barcelona. We need to find more speed to get right to the front but we are working hard on that and should be able to continue to close that gap with further developments to come.