Red Bull’s Verstappen records comfortable win in Spanish GP

BARCELONA: Max Verstappen (1:27:57.940) won the Spanish GP from pole position on Sunday, stretching his Formula One championship lead to 53 points and continuing Red Bull’s sweep of the season with the team’s seventh victory.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton finished second for Mercedes, but a distant 24.090 seconds behind, with teammate George Russell (+32.389 seconds) completing the podium on a cloudy but dry afternoon at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez (117 points), Verstappen’s (170 points) closest rival in the overall standings, finished fourth after fighting back from 11th at the start.

The win was double world champion Verstappen’s fifth of the season, third in a row, third in Spain and 40th in Formula One. Verstappen, who notched up the first grand prix win of his career at the Spanish circuit in 2016 and also triumphed last year, secured the bonus point for the fastest lap to cap a day of domination.

“It is a big pleasure to drive with a car like this. I think that it showed again today (Sunday),” said Verstappen, who fended off Ferrari’s home hero Carlos Sainz at the start in the only challenge of an otherwise straightforward afternoon.

“I had the harder compound [tyres], so I knew that the start would be a bit tricky. Going around the outside at Turn One is always quite difficult, but luckily nothing happened.”

Verstappen was shown a black and white flag for exceeding track limits late in the race, but the risk of a five-second penalty was hardly going to trouble him.

McLaren’s Lando Norris, who started third on the grid, suffered a broken front wing on the first lap after contact with Hamilton and had to pit, plunging down the order and finishing 17th.