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Red Bull close in on Ferrari

Published:Monday | May 13, 2019 | 12:00 AM
AP
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen (front) of The Netherlands overtakes Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany during the Spanish Formula One race at the Barcelona-Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo just outside Barcelona Spain, yesterday.

MONTMELO, Spain (AP):

Ferrari have a fight on their hands. Just not the one they want.

Red Bull are threatening to replace them as Formula One’s (F1) next-best team behind a dominant Mercedes after Max Verstappen outperformed Ferrari’s drivers at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen took third place yesterday behind race winner Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

That allowed the Red Bull driver to move past Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel into third place overall with 66 points to Vettel’s 64. Hamilton and Bottas are far in front with 112 and 105 points, respectively.

“I knew we could take the fight to Ferrari,” Verstappen said after being cheered by the large number of Dutch fans who had come to the race decked in orange T-shirts.

Youngest race winner

Verstappen and his supporters have good memories of the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit. His win here in 2016 made him F1’s youngest race winner at age 18.

While another victory was out of the question given Mercedes’ pace, Verstappen did not have too much trouble staying in front of the Ferraris.

“We were close to Ferrari in qualifying,” he said. “I am happy to be back on the podium and third in the championship. It is good to close the gap.”

As F1’s most successful team, Ferrari entered the season with renewed hopes of challenging Mercedes after rising talent Charles Leclerc joined Vettel in a potentially potent driving line-up.

Ferrari were faster on this same track during two weeks of preseason testing this winter and had brought in a new engine for the race.

But Mercedes were unfazed and stormed to a fifth one-two finish in as many races to further demoralise their rivals.

Vettel tried to get the jump on the Mercedes at the race start from third on the grid.

But the move only succeeded in making Bottas flinch and letting Hamilton go clear. After Vettel’s tires locked up, Verstappen slipped past into third place.

Even though there are 16 races left, it looks like Ferrari will likely have to wait another year to end their constructors title drought that dates back to 2008.