Max Verstappen outpaces Mercedes duo to cruise to Spanish Grand Prix victory

Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix delivering another dominant pole to flag victory for Red Bull, untroubled at the front of the field. However, behind him there was a resurgence for Mercedes and their newly redesigned car with Lewis Hamilton claiming second place and his teammate George Russell in third, a great run from 12th on the grid. Sergio Pérez also came back for Red Bull to take fourth from 11th on the grid, with Carlos Sainz in fifth for Ferrari and Lance Stroll in sixth for Aston Martin.

Verstappen was unchallenged in another crushing victory, a full 24-seconds clear of Hamilton after a race in which he had left the rest of the field behind within five laps and never surrendered his lead from pole. The win extends Verstappen’s lead in the world championship over Pérez to 53 points.

The world champion has now won five of the seven races this year and with teammate Pérez’s challenge already falling away with unforced errors, Verstappen is already clearly romping to a third title. Red Bull meanwhile remain unbeaten in seven meetings.

This weekend Verstappen conceded for the first time that his Red Bull car potentially had the pace advantage to complete a clean sweep of 22 wins, a feat never before achieved in F1. There is an awfully long way to go and he acknowledged it was highly unlikely but he is in rare form and the car is indeed so quick, as the performance here in Barcelona once more proved, that it is achievable. Indeed barring mechanical failures the weakest link appears by far to be only Pérez’s tendency toward costly error.

For Mercedes it is the team’s first double podium of the season and the best race pace they have displayed thus far, comfortably quicker than both Aston Martin and Ferrari.