Verstappen in a class of his own as he eases to Spanish GP win

It was yet another comfortable, dominant victory for Max Verstappen as he tightened his stranglehold on the 2023 driver’s championship on Sunday, winning the Spanish Grand Prix.

Leading from lights to flag from pole position, Verstappen barely needed his mirrors all afternoon in Barcelona, mounting a significant lead to, first, Carlos Sainz Jnr in the Ferrari before the local favourite was caught and passed by Lewis Hamilton in the revamped Mercedes.

Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing team-mate and championship rival Sergio Perez was once again paying for a poor qualifying session, starting 11th after missing out on Q3 and could only finish fourth behind George Russell in the other Mercedes.

For the reigning world champion, his lead in the standings already looks insurmountable at 53 points - more than two race wins - after just seven rounds.

“It’s a massive pleasure to drive a car like this,” said Verstappen. “It was important to try and keep the lead into turn one, it was quite tight. From there onwards it was about managing the tyres, I was able to create a big gap.

“We went on to the hards but I didn’t seem to have much grip, I was sliding around quite a lot, the pace was okay but I couldn’t create more of a gap, so we switched to softs and then I just needed to bring it home.

“We’ve had another strong weekend and that’s of course what I like to see for the team, hopefully we can keep this up throughout the year.”

Perez said: “I am disappointed with today, we have ultimately paid the price for a bad qualifying. We did have a good strategy but, looking at where we started from, there was only so much that we could do.

“I think P3 was possible but, if we wanted more points, then I would have had to take more risks on lap one and potentially compromise my race.”