Antonelli seeks sixth straight win at Barcelona Grand Prix

Ten years after Max Verstappen announced his arrival by winning the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, his apparent heir Mercedes’ teenage ace Kimi Antonelli, will on Sunday seek a crushing sixth consecutive victory.

The 19-year-old Italian, the youngest championship leader in F1 history, delivered a supreme demonstration of icy control and pure speed in Monaco last weekend – following a stunning pole lap with a masterful lights-to-flag triumph.

This week he could become only the sixth driver to claim six straight wins and so equal pre-season favourite and team-mate George Russell’s career total.

That would be another tough setback for the Briton as he bids to rebuild his season in the best car and engine package in a scrap with a precocious unfazed speedster who seems to be devoid of nerves.

A decade ago, while very different, the scenario threw up a race full of parallels that, if repeated on Sunday at the Circuit de Catalunya, might see another teenage triumph or Verstappen emerging again with a smile and Red Bull rejoicing.

For that to happen, however, the Milton Keynes-based team will need to recover from the power unit failure that ended Verstappen’s race on the grid In Monte Carlo and regain the speed shown in Montreal where the four-time champion finished third.

Ten years ago, Mercedes, as now, arrived in Catalunya as the team to beat only for their duelling title protagonists Lewis Hamilton, now a seven-time champion, and Nico Rosberg, who took the 2016 title and promptly retired, to collide and exit on the first lap.

That gifted the 18-year-old Red Bull debutant a memorable first win with the two Ferraris driven by 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen and four-time champion Sebastain Vettel second and third.

Something similar — the Mercedes’ drivers clashed in Canada — is not impossible.

Valtteri Bottas, back to nurse Cadillac through a maiden F1 season, was fifth for Williams, one of seven current drivers (including Hamilton, two-time champion Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg) in the race on that day.

Verstappen, twice, and Vettel once, reeled off six wins in a row, a feat Ferrari great seven-time champion Michael Schumacher achieved three times. The others were 1992 champion Nigel Mansell, two-time champion Jim Clark, three-time champion Jack Brabham, Rosberg and the only Italian Alberto Ascari, the 1952 and 1953 champion, whose feats are being equalled this year.

Hamilton twice claimed five consecutive wins, but not a sixth – proving perhaps that Antonelli is on the cusp of entry to an exalted club. Three-time champion Ayrton Senna reached four, twice, and four-time champion Alain Prost, once.

Antonelli’s astonishing rise has given him a 66-points lead ahead of a revived Hamilton, who is chasing a first win for Ferrari after two seconds in Canada and Monaco. He shares the record of six wins at the Barcelona track with Schumacher and has every reason to hope for a seventh.

Russell, is third on 68 points and bewildered by his slump in fortunes, as demonstrated by the fiasco of speeding penalties and pit-stop bungles in Monte Carlo. “I’m in a very weird state of mind,” he said. “I’ve never had a run like this…”

His fragile confidence will welcome Mercedes’ support as team chief Toto Wolff confirmed. “It hasn’t gone George’s way, but he is strong mentally and we know the level he can deliver… The objective is simple – reset, focus and perform.”