Verstappen also dominates in Spain, who now has forty Formula 1 victories

Max Verstappen has ended a particularly dominant weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix in style. He drove unthreatened to the fortieth victory in his Formula 1 career in Barcelona.

Another win and Verstappen comes next to racing legend Ayrton Senna, who was the best 41 times. Lewis Hamilton is the record holder with 103 wins, Michael Schumacher is second with 91 wins and Sebastian Vettel is third with 53 wins.

It was the first time for Verstappen that he won a race, in which he also drove the fastest lap and led all laps, after being the fastest in qualifying and all free practice sessions.

The two-time world champion increased his lead in the World Cup standings over teammate Sergio Pérez to 53 points. The Mexican somewhat limited the damage after a poor qualifying by driving from eleventh on the grid to fourth place.

In general, as Verstappen’s competitors know, the start of this season is one of the few moments when the Dutchman can be caught. Carlos Sainz, who had started from second place, tried straight into the first corner.

Pole sitter Verstappen, however, kept his distance and deflected the Spaniard’s attack from Ferrari. From then on, the two-time world champion slowly faded into the horizon, trailing Sainz by about half a second each lap.

It was indicative of Verstappen’s supremacy, who was one of the few drivers who had started on the mediums rather than on the faster soft tyres.

Sainz, in turn, had to relinquish second place. After the first series of pit stops, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell overtook him. The Mercedes drivers, who came into contact with each other during qualifying, drove together to the podium for the first time this season behind Verstappen.

In the video bar below interviews with Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, Ferrari chief Frédéric Vasseur, AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda, Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg and top tennis player Daniil Medvedev.

Russell’s third place, who had started from P12, was still in danger in the final phase, when Pérez was making an advance. The Mexican had slightly fresher tires and was catching up quickly, but eventually fell short of passing Russell.

Lando Norris (McLaren) quickly found himself out of the battle for the top spots after a strong performance on Saturday to force a third starting position. The Brit came into contact with Hamilton at the start and had to come in for a new front wing.

Fernando Alonso, the number three in the world championship, had a lesser weekend and finished seventh, just behind Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll.

Nyck de Vries also failed to score points in the seventh race of the Formula 1 season. He had to let teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who he had left behind in qualifying, go at the start and finished fourteenth.

The rain, predicted by some, failed to materialise, although halfway through the race Russell made some believe otherwise. “It’s raining in turn five,” he radioed to his engineer.

While the spectators perked up and the team bosses in the pit lane looked nervously to the sky, Russell had to withdraw that observation moments later. “Can’t anyone else see that it’s raining? Ah, then it’s probably the beads of sweat on the inside of my helmet.”

The Formula 1 season continues in two weeks with the Grand Prix of Canada.