18-years old Max Verstappen claimed an astonishing Formula One victory at the Spanish Grand Prix as the youngest ever winner, after Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg crashed out of the race on the first lap.
The biggest drama of the race came at start. The collision between Hamilton and Rosberg resulted in taking each other out in Turn 4, just after the start. The race blew wide open and turned what had looked likely to be an easy one-two victory for Mercedes into a fascinating duel between Red Bull and Ferrari, who had locked out the next two rows of the grid.
Verstappen turned in a masterful drive on a two-stop strategy, holding firm under pressure from Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen in the final stage to become F1’s youngest-ever winner at 18 years and 227 days on his first race for Red Bull. Verstappen was only promoted to the Red Bull seat ten days before the grand prix, stepping up from junior team Toro Rosso in place of Daniil Kvyat.
It was the two men on the two-stop strategies, Verstappen and Raikkonen, who had made the correct calls despite being the two looking less likely to win the race at mid-distance. Sebastian Vettel finished 3rd on the podium having held off Daniel Ricciardo, they both chose three-stop strategy. The Australian driver had led the first half of the race but, as it turned out, went on to the slower strategy, and finished fourth despite a puncture on the penultimate lap.
Valteri Bottas in Williams almost managed to catch Ricciardo (pit stop) on the last lap but eventually finished 5th, Carlos Saint Jr. for Toro Rosso after great start felt on 6th, Sergio Perez for Force India on 7th, Felipe Massa for Williams on 8th, Jenson Button for McLaren on 9th and Daniil Kvyat for Toro Rosso on 10th.
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