Red Bull pick up single point after late chaos in Spanish Grand Prix

Late drama changed Red Bull’s race at the Spanish Grand Prix, as the team picked up a single point when they had previously looked set for a podium.

Max Verstappen was set to finish third but after he was passed by Charles Leclerc following a late safety car, there came a hugely controversial incident when the Dutchman collided with Mercedes’ George Russell.

The contact saw the reigning world champion handed a ten second time penalty, turning what would have been a fifth place finish into tenth, earning a single point.

Teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished 13th in the race, failing to score a point after starting from the pit lane.

The result saw both driver and team lose ground in the respective F1 championships. In the driver’s championship, Verstappen has 137 points, finding himself 39 points behind second place Lando Norris and 49 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.

Teammate Tsunoda sits 15th in the championship, with the Japanese driver on ten points but having failed to score points in the last 2 races.

Meanwhile, in the constructor’s championship, the Milton Keynes-based Red Bull team slip a place to fourth in the standings. While they are 90 points clear of 5th placed Williams, they now find themselves 15 points behind Mercedes in third, 21 behind second place Ferrari and 218 points behind leaders McLaren.

At a hot Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull had lined up with Verstappen third and Tsunoda from the pit-lane after the latter changed set-up following qualifying last.

Verstappen had managed to jump ahead of Norris to take second place from the start of the race, before being passed back by the McLaren at the start of lap 13.

Red Bull opted to go aggressive by pitting both their drivers onto a 3-stop strategy, and as the race progressed, Verstappen was able to show some pace by catching up to Norris. He had got within DRS range of the McLaren, but lost it after losing time while trying to lap Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman, who were distracted by their own scrap over position.

It had looked as though proceedings were set for Verstappen to take third when on lap 54, the safety car was deployed after Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli pulled up with an oil pressure fault that killed the car’s engine.

Red Bull made the choice to pit Verstappen onto fresh hard tyres, but the choice went awry when proceedings restarted on lap 60. Verstappen had a huge slide out of the final corner, which invited Leclerc to pass.

There was some slight contact between the Red Bull and Ferrari as the latter went past, and as if that wasn’t enough, Verstappen made further contact with Russell’s Mercedes at turn one, having to take to the escape road.

In their deliberations, Red Bull felt that Verstappen might be vulnerable to a penalty if he didn’t let Russell through so informed their driver to do so, despite his protests.

In doing so, however, Russell and Verstappen collided on lap 64, with Verstappen deemed wholly at fault after seemingly accelerating to prevent Russell to make the pass into turn 5.

It later came out that this communication for Verstappen to let Russell through was in error, with the stewards later determining that there was no reason to give Verstappen a penalty for the turn one incident. A similar decision was reached for the contact between Verstappen and Leclerc just before that.

By contrast, the stewards deemed Verstappen wholly responsible for the incident with Russell, handing him a ten second time penalty. Although he let Russell through to take fifth, the penalty would see him sent down to tenth.

Also of note is that Verstappen received three penalty points for the incident, taking him up to 11 points. One more would see him earn a race ban.

As for Tsunoda, he ended up making some moves after the restart but was unable to close in on the points, coming up short with a 13th place finish.

The race was the last after a triple header, with Red Bull next racing at the Canadian Grand Prix in two weeks time.