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Max Verstappen took another considerable stride towards a third successive F1 title with his latest comprehensive race victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.
For the third successive event, the fifth time this season and the 40th occasion overall in his career, Verstappen took the chequered flag, finishing 24 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes.
It was the 35th time the duo have finished one-two in a race, the most of any driver combination in F1 history, with Hamilton leading the way by a score of 20-15.
It was also the third grand slam of Verstappen’s career that comprises pole position, fastest lap, leading every lap and race win.
With George Russell picking up third place in his Mercedes, it was comfortably the team’s best result of this season and a firm indicator that the upgrades delivered on the W14 at the last race in Monaco have improved the car.
But given the gap between Verstappen and Hamilton, it is undoubtedly clear how much work Mercedes still has to do.
From 11th at the start, Sergio Perez managed to finish fourth but the Mexican driver has now dropped to 53 points behind Verstappen after seven races.
On a more normal track of Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, Mercedes can again claim it has the second-quickest car, deposing Aston Martin as Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso finished sixth and seventh respectively.
Given the travails of Charles Leclerc in qualifying on Saturday, Carlos Sainz was Ferrari’s lead runner, but he effectively went backwards from his second-on-the-grid start to finish fifth at the flag.
Behind Alonso, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu for Alfa Romeo and the second of Alpine of Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.
Yuki Tsunoda in his AlphaTauri had finished ninth but dropped to 12th after collecting a five-second penalty for forcing Zhou off track.
Oscar Piastri was 13th in his McLaren.
Once the five red lights disappeared, for the front row of polesitter Verstappen and home hero Sainz alongside him, it was a clean getaway.
The action, however, unfolded behind them, notably figuring McLaren’s Lando Norris who had performed superbly in qualifying to line up third on the grid.
Norris, however, was passed on the run down to Turn 1, and as he filed in behind out of the second corner, he clipped the left-rear tyre on Hamilton’s Mercedes, damaging his front wing in the process.
Hamilton was fortunate to avoid a puncture, in contrast to Norris who was forced into the pits to take on a new nose for his MCL60.
Further behind, from 12th on the grid, Russell made a blistering start, although in order to avoid contact through Turn 1, he took to the run-off and eventually the escape lane out of Turn 2, dropping into seventh.
That prompted a stewards’ investigation for ‘leaving the track and gaining an advantage’, during which time Russell passed Alonso to claim sixth position.
The stewards, however, determined Russell’s rapid ascent in the opening exchanges was fair as no further action was taken.
At that time, Hamilton passed Stroll for third, a position he lost on the opening lap as the Canadian driver took advantage of the seven-time champion’s early brush with Norris.
After 11 laps, Verstappen had opened up a 5.4s gap on Sainz, with Hamilton closing in behind the Spaniard to 1.6s, followed by Stroll and then Russell, who had claimed fifth off Ocon at the start of the lap.
Leclerc, who had started from the pit lane after his disastrous qualifying session, and on hard tyres in a bid to run long on his first stint, was running 11th.
Of the top 10, Ocon was the first to pit after 14 laps, getting rid of his used soft tyres and taking on the medium compound, followed swiftly by Stroll, taking on another set of softs, and who managed to keep ahead of the Frenchman.
With Hamilton closing to within a second of Sainz, Ferrari pitted their driver after 16 laps, promoting Hamilton into second, followed by Leclerc, albeit with the Monégasque 26 seconds behind his team-mate.
Reporting his tyres to still be good, Mercedes opted to keep Hamilton on track rather than go for the undercut on Sainz.
After 20 laps, with Russell third behind Verstappen and Hamilton, he suggested running a surprise one-stop strategy, to which he was told it “was not impossible”.
At that stage, only the top four that included Perez, had not stopped, with the two Red Bulls running on new mediums and the two Mercedes on used soft, the latter duo running longer than those around them who had started on the same rubber.
But with Hamilton losing time to Verstappen, he was finally called in after 24 laps, followed by Russell a lap later, with both taking on new mediums.
Verstappen followed suit after 26 laps, and Perez on the following lap, with both taking on the hard tyres. In between, Russell called out over the radio that there was rain at Turn 5. Comically, it later emerged, however, it was sweat from inside of his helmet.
On rubber 10 laps fresher, at the start of lap 29, Hamilton, who had come out two seconds behind Sainz, reclaimed second place with a move into Turn 1, dropping in 12.9s behind Verstappen.
Third-placed Sainz was swiftly dropped, with Russell closing in behind, followed by Stroll, Ocon, Tsunoda, Perez, Alonso and Zhou, with Piastri 11th.
At the start of lap 35, Russell moved up into the podium places with a superb move down the inside of Turn 1 on a weaving Sainz.
As the race played out, given Russell had earlier suggested a potential one-stop, he pitted for a second time after 46 laps, taking on a set of soft tyres that had earlier worked well for him.
That left a top three of Verstappen, Hamilton and Perez as the only drivers yet to pit for a second time.
Russell, however, had enough in hand on Sainz that he managed to emerge ahead of the Ferrari man and slot into fourth, quickly setting the fastest lap of the race of a 1:18.057s.
Hamilton made his second stop after 50 laps, with Red Bull also bringing in Perez at the same time, whilst Verstappen also took on new softs to run to the end of the race.
Perez then started to reel in Russell in a bid to claim the final podium place behind Verstappen and Hamilton.
The only trouble for Verstappen was that he was shown a black-and-white flag for exceeding track limits for a third time.
It prompted a message over the radio that with a lead of 18 seconds over Hamilton there were “no risks required”.
Despite that, Verstappen still went and posted the fastest lap on 61 with a time of 1:16.330s to net the fastest lap point to which he was then promptly told “now can you bring it home between the white lines”.
He duly did so, with Russell eight seconds down on Hamilton and 3.4s ahead of Perez after the 66 laps.
Leclerc managed 11th, just 0.8s behind Gasly, with Tsunoda the only other driver on the lead lap as the nine behind all finished a lap down on the incomparable Verstappen.
