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Max Verstappen will be thanking his stars after surviving an early scare and mechanical issues to win the 2022 F1 Spanish GP. The Red Bull driver finished ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez and Mercedes' George Russell.
The race saw the Dutchman suffer a spin followed by a malfunctioning DRS that only made his race tough. Speaking about his persistent issues with former F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa during the post-race interview, Verstappen said:
“That made it very tough, but we managed to get ahead again and do our own race, and eventually win the race. It was a difficult beginning, but a good end.”
The reigning world champion then went on to express his joy at the results, saying:
“I tried to stay focused; of course, it’s not nice when stuff like that happens, but I’m very happy to win and very happy for Checo [team-mate Perez]. It was a great result for the team.”
With the win, Verstappen rose to the top of the drivers' standings with 110 points, pipping Charles Leclerc, who had an unfortunate DNF while leading the race.
Max Verstappen had suffered DRS issues earlier during qualifying as well
The DRS issues faced by Max Verstappen during the 2022 F1 Spanish GP are not new as he went through the same trouble during Saturday's qualifying for the race. The Dutchman had to abort his final flying lap during Q3 as his DRS malfunctioned.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 post-qualifying, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said:
“It wasn’t actually power in the end, it was the DRS that didn’t open. Obviously we need to get the car back to understand what caused that because it opened on the back straight just as a check when he came back into the pits.”
Horner, however, felt that even if the DRS had worked, it would not have been enough to trump Charles Leclerc's pole-taking lap. He said:
“But I don’t think we had enough today to beat that lap of Charles [Leclerc]. It was a great lap by him [Leclerc] under pressure at the end there, but I’m still pleased with the front-row start.”
Despite persistent reliability issues, Max Verstappen and Red Bull have managed to win the race at Barcelona. In turn, both the driver and the team are on top of their respective standings this season.
