Verstappen dominates Spanish GP to press title advantage

Verstappen led every lap from pole position and set the fastest lap of the race for a rare ‘gland slam’ victory, underlining his iron grasp on the Barcelona race and the championship just seven rounds into the 22-race campaign.

The Dutchman was threatened only briefly for the entire afternoon – off the line, when Carlos Sainz executed an excellent launch from second on the grid to run alongside Verstappen into the first turn.

But the pole-getter had the inside line and forced Sainz to yield into P2, after which the Red Bull Racing was free to sprint up the road to a controlled 24-second victory.

“It’s a big pleasure to drive with a car like this,” he said. “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.”

The victory grows his championship lead to 53 points, more than two clear grand prix wins, over teammate Sergio Pérez, who recovered from 11^th on the grid after a poor qualifying afternoon to finish fourth.

Hi route to the podium as blocked by an unexpectedly strong Mercedes team, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell scoring the German marque’s first double podium of the year and fourth since 2021.

Hamilton started the race fourth but was up to third early in the race, from where his car’s stronger tyre consumption unlocked the route past Sainz to finish second.

Hamilton was able to run nine laps deeper into the race than the Spaniard before making his first stop. He rejoined the race just 2.4 seconds down on the Ferrari and took just four laps to sweep past the red car and was quickly out of reach.

“We definitely didn’t expect to have the result we had today,” Hamilton said, acknowledging the effectiveness of the major upgrades brought to his car last week in Monaco.

“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.”

Russell’s race to the podium was even more impressive from 12^th on the grid. A great start earnt him four places on the first lap and an even longer first stint ensured he was up to fifth after his first pit stop behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

He made quick work of the Canadian and seven laps later dived deep underneath Sainz to take his place on the podium.

“I’m a little bit surprised [to be here] for sure,” he said. “Kudos to the team for giving me a really great car today. That was a really fun race for us.”

Pérez was the last driver to demote Sainz further down the grid, passing the Ferrari as it struggled with its tyres in the final stint of the race and finishing three seconds off a podium place.

Stroll led home Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso for the first time all season, albeit the Spaniard refused to pass the Canadian in the last 10 laps despite having clearly superior speed, choosing instead to allow the team to bank some risk-free points.

Esteban Ocon was eighth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda at the flag, but the Japanese driver was demoted to 12^th with a five-second penalty for pushing Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu off the track in a robust defensive move to hold position late in the race.

Zhou was promoted to ninth in this place, with Pierre Gasly collecting the last point for 10^th.

Charles Leclerc qualifying troubles forced him to start from pit lane, but his Ferrari wasn’t up to the task of scoring points from there, leaving him 11^th ahead of the penalised Tsunoda, Oscar Piastri, Nyck de Vries, Nico Hülkenberg and Thai drive Alex Albon.

Lando Norris was forced to pit at the end of the first lap for a new front wing after tagging Hamilton in a botched passing move.

Kevin Magnussen finished 18^th ahead of a wayward Valtteri Bottas, who later discovered serious floor damage to his Alfa Romeo that kept him far from the points, and American rookie Logan Sargeant.