Verstappen adds to dominance in Spain
Max Verstappen had warned his Red Bull team was good enough to win every single race of the Formula One season. He took one more step toward that ambitious sweep Sunday by easing to victory at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The two-time defending champion started from pole position and never was challenged as he breezed to his fifth win of the year. Verstappen beat Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari to the first corner and then eased his superior car around the 4.6-kilometre Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to finish well ahead of Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
“It is a big pleasure to drive a car like this and it showed on a day like this,” Verstappen said. “Hopefully we can keep it up throughout the year.”
But Verstappen warned against complacency. “We just have to focus on ourselves and try to keep on improving our car. Of course right now it all looks great, but you can’t stand still in this world.”
His dominant race performance came after he secured pole position with intimidating ease on Saturday. Verstappen set an untouchable top lap time and then watched the rest of the pack scramble for the other spots on the grid from his garage.
The Dutchman had said before practice for the Barcelona race that while the Red Bull cars were fast and reliable enough to win every single race, he figured that “we will always have tracks where it doesn’t work out exactly, bad luck in qualifying, mistakes, whatever.”
Nothing went wrong, at least not for Verstappen, in Spain. The 66lap race was largely decided in the 595-metre run from the starting line to Turn One. Sainz tried to get the jump on Verstappen from the off by starting on a faster, less durable tire than the pole sitter. Sainz was side by side with Verstappen after the long opening straightway going into the first turn, but the Red Bull fended off the Ferrari to stay in front.
Alonso remined third in the drivers’ standings, with Hamilton fourth.
“The Bulls are still a bit ahead but we will keep chasing them down,” said an exuberant Hamilton. “I think they are still a bit too quick at the moment. If we can close on them by the end of the year then that will be great. If not, then next year.”
The next race is in Montreal on June 18.