How Max Verstappen claimed landmark Barcelona win as Mercedes self-destructed

As bad as the 2026 F1 season has been so far for Red Bull, you can never, ever rule out Max Verstappen winning a race from out of nowhere - like a Randy Orton RKO.

Now while the Monaco Grand Prix ultimately ended in Max Verstappen retiring on the opening lap, he had somehow dragged his Red Bull onto the front row in qualifying to give him a surprise chance of winning on Sunday. However, Red Bull's reliability means we will never know if he had the tools to end Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes winning streak.

What we do know is he has form for taking advantage of Mercedes misfortune, and more specifically doing it to win at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to take a victory nobody could have predicted.

The track which had held the Spanish Grand Prix since 1991 will now host the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix beginning with this weekend's race and it was the scene for Verstappen's perfect Red Bull debut in 2016.

READ MORE: F1 World Champions: The full list from Farina to new king Lando Norris

Red Bull make Verstappen change

Verstappen was actually one of the big stories heading into the weekend following Red Bull's shock decision to axe Daniil Kvyat four races into the season on the back of his home grand prix in Russia.

Kvyat did not have a great start to the campaign but still grabbed a podium in China and while 15 points down on team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, his seat didn't look in any immediate danger.

But Red Bull were always keen to get Verstappen into the Red Bull seat as soon as possible, with Helmut Marko saying shortly before Kvyat's removal: "Our established guys need to look... Paradoxically, the more inexperienced ones [Verstappen and Carlos Sainz] are doing a better job."

So once Kvyat ruined his Russian Grand Prix by clumsily hitting Sebastian Vettel twice on the opening lap, Red Bull saw their opportunity.

Verstappen lined up for Red Bull alongside Ricciardo in Spain but podiums were about the best he could hope for after being three tenths slower than his team-mate in qualifying and over a second down on pole sitter Lewis Hamilton, who lined up alongside team-mate Nico Rosberg on the front row.

Everyone remembers two things about this race: how it starts and how it finishes.

Hamilton and Rosberg DNF for Mercedes

Mercedes' race didn't last four corners when Hamilton and Rosberg collided before the Repsol turn, taking them off track and out of the race. That story is for another day, but while Toto Wolff started preparing to read the riot act to his drivers, a safety car was brought out to clear up the Mercedes mess.

The top three right now was a Red Bull lockout: Ricciardo, Verstappen and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz (Kvyat was 11th). That lasted until lap eight when the more powerful Ferrari of Vettel sneaked past Sainz for third. Two laps later, Vettel's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was also past Sainz.

From here the race turned into a chess match between Red Bull and Ferrari. Ultimately, race leader Ricciardo was put on what was thought to be the faster three-stop strategy to cover Vettel, also on three.

Both teams though split their strategy by putting Verstappen and Raikkonen on two-stops and it turned out that was the way to run the race, when the two were left fighting for victory at the end, with Vettel being pressured for third a few seconds back by Ricciardo.

For the final 10 laps, Verstappen defended against the challenge of Raikkonen, but the bigger scrap was behind them with Ricciardo making two lunges at Vettel without success. On the penultimate lap, Ricciardo's charge was ended with a puncture but after limping back to the pits he was able to change tyres and get out in fourth again in front of Williams' Valtteri Bottas.

Verstappen makes F1 history

Out in front, Verstappen kept his nerve to hold off the 2007 world champion with a supreme defensive drive to become F1's youngest winner at 18 years, seven months and 15 days. A record which stands to this day.

After the race Verstappen was stunned to win on his Red Bull debut, saying: "It feels amazing. I can’t believe it. It was a great race. I have to say thank you to the team to give me such a great car to win straight away in the first race – amazing feeling!

"Especially in the last stint I got quite a bit of pressure from Kimi behind, but on this track it’s quite difficult to overtake so for me it was a case of not making mistakes, no front locking, so that’s what I tried to do and it worked. This feeling to be first… I was targeting a podium but then to win straight away, it’s an amazing feeling."

One of the more bizarre quirks from the race was Kvyat setting the fastest lap for Toro Rosso... the only one he would achieve in his 110-race F1 career.

Verstappen's incredible debut, assisted by Mercedes' self elimination, was just one of the two races in the 21-race season not won by the Silver Arrows. It perfectly highlighted a crucial trait in Verstappen's racing character. Just give him one chance and he will take it.

F1 SCHEDULE: Every race date for 2026 plus TV details

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

View full biography