On Saturday I pondered whether the first Spanish Grand Pix at the Madring would be a race of chaos and safety cars, or it would be as quiet as the first race in Baku – which as it turned out to be the calm before the storm, as subsequent years have demonstrated.
In fact, Madring produced a relatively trouble-free race that not only lacked major drama, but also any semblance of overtaking. That didn’t come as a surprise, as drivers had discovered how hard passing was even in sim running.
However, there were a couple of intriguing incidents at the front that became points-taking – Max Verstappen having to give back positions for overtaking off-track, and Lando Norris losing a likely win after what was simply unlucky timing with the safety car.
A driver handing places back after gaining an advantage, typically by jumping a chicane, has been a regular occurrence over the years. Sometimes the driver knows immediately that he’s likely to be investigated and penalized, so he backs off and gives the place back.
But often he’s convinced that he’s done nothing wrong, especially when he feels that he was forced off the road by the other guy. On the first lap in Madrid we saw examples of both.
Aware of how difficult overtaking would be from second on the grid, Kimi Antonelli was so keen to get by pole-sitter Norris that he cut chicanes not once but twice on the opening lap, on both occasions letting the McLaren man back by.
“I did try, but obviously Lando is not going to let me pass by,” he said. “He did what he had to do. I found myself cutting the chicane twice. In the second chicane, I thought I could maybe make it, but I felt like it was too risky also for contact. So yeah, I decided to bail out…”
Indeed, while he let Norris back by, he went off the ideal line and also allowed Verstappen by, dropping to third.
Meanwhile, Verstappen had also run over the first chicane at the start, and he was adamant that he did it to avoid contact with Lewis Hamilton, who was running wide.
“I would have had damage at the start if I would have stayed on track,” said the Dutchman. “It’s as simple as that. I just did my own thing in Turn 1, but Lewis went for a move on the first two and bottomed out on the curb, so he just jumped back onto the track, and that’s why I had to go off the road. If I would have stayed there, I would have definitely had contact. My race could have potentially been over in Turn 2.”
Verstappen was surprised when, not long after, the Red Bull pit wall asked him to give Hamilton a place back. He disputed it, before finally accepting that he had to do it.
The problem was that at this point Hamilton was two cars back – so, to his frustration, Verstappen had to let Antonelli through first and then Hamilton. Not only that, but Hamilton had brake issues, and there was quite a gap. So to fulfill his obligation, Verstappen lost a lot of ground.
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Given that initially he was ahead of eventual winner Antonelli, could Verstappen have won without letting the Mercedes past? He didn’t think so, and neither did his boss Laurent Mekies.
“When it comes to could we have won the race?” said Mekies by Road & Track. “No, I don’t think we could have won the race. A. because they were faster, B. because I think as much as it is a painful and difficult decision to make at that moment, I think the guys on pit wall did a very good job analyze the situation in as cold manner as they could, and took a fast and strong decision, and I think it would have been very, very difficult to think we could have avoided a penalty, as much as it is frustrating to be in that situation. But I think it would have been very difficult. And then, once you have a five- or 10-second penalty, it can affect your race in many different ways. But certainly doesn’t get you in a better position than P2.”
Nevertheless, it didn’t harm Antonelli’s progress when Verstappen moved over and let him by, and later in the race the Italian benefited from the other talking point of the day going in his favor.
Norris had a useful cushion over Antonelli when Lance Stroll stopped on track with a mechanical issue. It was perfect timing for a pit stop, and thus everyone anticipated a Virtual Safety Car, which would make that stop cheap – trimming the loss from around 25 seconds to 13.
Alas for McLaren and Norris when it came; he was five-plus seconds past the pit entry, and it was too late. Inevitably, behind him, Antonelli jumped into the pits, as did Verstappen and George Russell. It wasn’t quite over for Norris – if the VSC remained in place for a lap, he could come in next time around. However, it was withdrawn just before he reached the pit entry.
To the surprise of many observers, he still came in and paid the price of a green flag pit stop, with a slow tire change making the loss even worse.
He thus dropped way behind not only Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell, but also Charles Leclerc, who opted to stay out. So why did he pit under green and not wait for another yellow situation?
“I had to come in at the end of the lap because it was the only chance,” he said. “The fact that everyone’s kind of on colder tires and you’re still minimizing the pit loss. The medium tire was destroyed, and the hard tire was amazing.”
As the race panned out, Norris recovered to finish third behind Antonelli and Verstappen, but he clearly had the pace to win.
“We were just insanely unlucky today,” he said. “I was the only one on the whole grid who didn’t get the chance to do the pit stop. That’s just unfortunate. It’s happened in races, and there’s been plenty of times where I’ve gained from it in the past and times where I’ve lost from it, and it’s racing, but never when fighting for a win. So, I think it’s probably one of the first times a win has been lost simply because of it.”
Norris was correct that he was the only driver without the chance to pit under the VSC, but it was pure bad luck, as race control doesn’t pay attention to who might lose out or benefit.
He made the logical point that perhaps a VSC should not disadvantage anyone.
“We have spoken about it in the past several times,” he said. “About how it can be at least covered for one lap, or everyone has the opportunity to do the pit stops, or you just block the pit entry, and no one can box apart from if you have a puncture or something. So, I think there’s a few things you could do to make it simpler and fairer for everyone, but that’s a bigger discussion. This is not something I can just ask for. I think it’s something, as a group of drivers, I think we would all want, but there’s a lot more to it, depending on if it’s raining and there’s a VSC, and you’re on slicks, does it mean you can box or not? You know, so it’s a complicated subject.”
He added: “I think everyone wants the same thing, and that’s just fairness for everyone. Of course I’m complaining about it today. I could benefit from it next week, next time out, and I could win because of it. I have to take it on the chin, but I just hope it doesn’t happen to anyone again, because it’s just not how you should lose a race.”