Max Verstappen scored a rare grand slam victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, leading every lap from pole and logging the fastest lap of the race on his way to a commanding 24-second victory.
Verstappen’s win was only very briefly in doubt at the start of the race, when a strong launch by front-row starter Carlos Sainz had them running side by side into the braking zone at Turn 1. But the Dutchman had the inside line, which forced the Spaniard to yield and concede the place and consolidate second.
Verstappen was rarely spotted after that, building enough of a buffer to comfortably hold the lead after his two pit stops and stamp his authority all over the race, extending his championship lead to 53 points.
“It’s a big pleasure to drive with a car like this,” he said. “A win here, it’s incredible.
“We had another strong weekend and that’s of course what I like to see from myself and the team, and hopefully we can just keep that up throughout the year.”
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Sainz was hopeful of holding second, but his Ferrari was no match for the resurgent upgraded Mercedes car, with both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell charging up the field to complete the podium.
Hamilton launched from fourth but was lucky to make it to the end of the first lap without a puncture after Lando Norris nosed his rear-left tire through Turn 2. The McLaren car lost its front wing, but the Mercedes was able to continue to pursue a podium finish.
Sainz attempted to pre-empt the undercut by switching from softs to mediums on lap 15, but Hamilton reported his soft tires were holding up fine and extended his stint. The Briton ran nine laps deeper into the race before making his first stop and rejoined 2.4s behind the Ferrari. He took just four laps to catch and pass Sainz before galloping to a secure second place.
“What a result for our team,” Hamilton said. “We definitely didn’t expect to have the result we had today.
“A big, big thank you to everyone back at the factory for continuing to push to bring us a little bit closer to the Bulls.”
Sainz’s podium hopes were fading fast, and it was the impressive Russell who would deprive him of a home rostrum.
Russell climbed from 12th to eighth on the first lap and ran even deeper than Hamilton before making his first stop. He entered the lane from second place, rejoined fifth and swept past Lance Stroll and Sainz in just 10 laps, passing the Ferrari with a big lunge into the first turn.
“Kudos to the team for giving me a really great car today,” he said. “That was a really fun race for us.
“A sign of things to come hopefully for us and the team.”
Sainz’s misery wasn’t yet finished, with Perez next to charge through from his out-of-position 11th on the grid. The Mexican was up to fifth after his last stop, which put him on a fresh set of softs up against Sainz’s nine-lap-old hards.
The Ferrari driver never stood a chance, and with 13 laps to go he was deprived of fourth place with a move in the DRS zone.
Sainz was at least able to keep ahead of the Aston Martin drivers, with Lance Stroll enjoying a rare day as the lead teammate in sixth ahead of home favorite Fernando Alonso in seventh — although the Spaniard refused to use his superior late-race pace to pass the Canadian in the closing laps.
Esteban Ocon held his place at the head of midfield for Alpine in eighth, albeit two places down on his grid spot after Russell and Perez’s recoveries.
Yuki Tsunoda took the flag ninth but was demoted to 12th after serving a five-second penalty for forcing Zhou Guanyu off track at the first turn.
Zhou had lined up a move around the outside of the turn late in the race but felt he was run out of room and bailed into the run-off zone, an incident to which the stewards took a dim view. The penalty promoted Zhou to ninth and Pierre Gasly into 10th, the Frenchman scoring the final point of the grand prix after a successful late defense against Charles Leclerc’s limp recovery from a pit-lane start following his mystifyingly uncompetitive qualifying performance.
Oscar Piastri finished 13th and lapped ahead of Nyck de Vries and Nico Hulkenberg, whose impressive seventh on the grid was undone by terrible soft tire wear in his first stint.
Alex Albon was 16th ahead of the damage-affected Norris, Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas and American rookie Logan Sargeant.
