F1 news LIVE: Lewis Hamilton reveals Spanish Grand Prix inspiration and Red Bull explain team orders

Max Verstappen earned his third win of the season as part of a one-two finish for Red Bull in the Spanish Grand Prix and broke down his race after the chequered flag touching on his DRS issues and how he was left frustrated trying to get past Mercedes’ George Russell.

“A bit of a race with two halves,” said Verstappen, “because the first 30 laps were very frustrating for me after I went off in Turn 4, first of all, which really caught me by surprise because I didn’t feel like I was actually braking later or throwing more speed into the corner. But it was very gusty out there today… that caught me out by surprise, that was not ideal of course.

“Of course I was a bit frustrated at the time because I couldn’t get [Russell] because of DRS issues, but the fight itself was really cool also. I think that lap where I did go down the outside and George went around the outside and I was around the outside of Turn 3 again, I think that was a really cool fight.

“I look back at it and I’ll smile now; at the time of course I was a little bit frustrated. But it was a really good and tough battle, I think.”

Lewis Hamilton says his brilliant comeback drive at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix has resurrected his dream of fighting for an eighth world championship.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen raced to his third victory in as many outings after Charles Leclerc was cruelly eliminated from the lead when engine gremlins struck his Ferrari on lap 27 of a sizzling race at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.

Christian Horner has dismissed the potential for Sergio Perez to defend his lead at the Spanish Grand Prix, rather than concede to teammate Max Verstappen after team orders.

“DRS was working intermittently. So it worked one lap not the next,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.

“And I think from a team point of view, the offset was so great between the two of them. I mean, Max was at that stage, because the tyre delts are about two seconds a lap quicker. It just didn’t make sense to let them fight it out.

“I think we discuss it you know openly, I think he see the race plot,” said Horner of Perez. You see how, I think close to 30 laps to do on that medium tyre, which in the end we needed to pit to make sure we covered Russell’s so in the heat of the moment, you’re gonna understand he’s a racing driver. If he wasn’t pushing those things, he’s not doing his job.”

The Red Bull driver took advantage of Charles Leclerc’s mechanical failure on lap 27 of 66 before performing out of his skin to deliver his third win in as many races.

Sergio Perez completed a one-two finish for Red Bull, as George Russell secured third, following another fine performance from the young Briton, with Carlos Sainz fourth.

Magnussen’s Haas took contact from the seven-time world champion’s Mercedes as the Danish driver looked to pass Hamilton at Turn Four in Barcelona having made a strong start.

Haas team principal Gunther Steiner says “a queue of drivers” could potentially replace Mick Schumacher if the German’s Formula 1 performances don’t improve.

The 23-year-old Schumacher, son of seven-time world champion Michael, is one of only two full-time drivers who have failed to score at least one point in the opening rounds of the 2022 season, alongside Williams’ Nicholas Latifi.

In his debut campaign last year Schumacher was driving by far the worst car on the F1 grid, with Haas unable to challenge for a top ten finish at any point in the season. The American-owned outfit wrote the year off in order to concentrate their development efforts on 2022, and so far their strategy appears to be paying dividends, with the squad moving up the grid order into the midfield after the biggest regulation change F1 has undergone in a generation.

Fernando Alonso has slammed Formula 1’s stewards and the FIA’s new race control setup, calling the officiating in the top tier of motorsport “incompetent” and “not very professional”.

Alonso, 40, is the most experienced driver on the F1 grid and is set to overtake former Ferrari and Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen’s record of 349 grand prix starts during the course of the 2022 campaign, but has been left unimpressed with the new structure put in place by FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem, who was elected to replace the outgoing Jean Todt last December.

Former race director Michael Masi was sacked by the FIA in the wake of the controversy surrounding the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the end of last year, when Max Verstappen won his debut world championship after Masi’s unprecedented interpretation of the safety car rules rendered race leader Lewis Hamilton a sitting duck and effectively gifted the title to Verstappen.

George Russell fears Formula One drivers could be exposed to long-term head trauma if the sport’s ‘porpoising’ phenomenon is not resolved.

The British driver compared the new-for-2022 sensation – when the car violently bounces on its suspension at high speed – to football’s dementia problem.

A recent study showed former professional footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from the disease than the general population.

Mercedes have visibly suffered with porpoising more than most following the introduction of new aerodynamic rules.

But Ferrari – despite their driver Charles Leclerc holding a 19-point title lead over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix – have also suffered.

The Formula One season is in full swing as the drivers prepare for the seventh race of the most extensive calendar in the sport’s history.

So far, Max Verstappen has secured four wins and sits atop the Driver’s Championship after a retirement issue to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in Spain.

Red Bull and Ferrari’s rivalry continues to bubble away nicely, with the two teams separated bya small number of points in the Constructors’ Championship.

Elsewhere on the grid, Mercedes look to be making progress after an extremely strong weekend in Catalunya. Here is everything you need to know:

After the retirement of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc from the lead, Sergio Perez was asked to relinquish first place by his team, helping to clear the way for Max Verstappen to take his third consecutive race win ahead of his teammate.

However Horner has insisted that it was the sensible option, with the team principal not willing to risk potentially missing out on a significant amount of points by letting the drivers fight it out, particularly with DRS working only intermittently.