Max Verstappen has won the Spanish Grand Prix following a dominant victory over both the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell and his Red Bull teammate Perez.
Verstappen started on pole position, alongside Carlos Sainz, who was hoping to take his Ferrari to victory on home soil.
Going into turn one, Verstappen kept the lead as Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes made contact with McLaren’s Lando Norris. The seven-time World Champion was forced to slow as the Ferrari ahead of him had to lift to avoid going into the back of the Red Bull ahead of him.
Lance Stroll made up two places in his Aston Martin as Norris reported damage on his car over team radio and came into the pitlane at the end of the opening lap after starting in third place.
On lap 11, George Russell (Mercedes) dived down the inside of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine to take fifth place as he looked to join the battle between Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Lewis Hamilton ahead, with his team-mate currently in the final podium position.
After a third of the race, it was Verstappen who held a lengthy margin out front, with the Mercedes duo making up the rest of the podium, Hamilton having the advantage over Russell, who was very vocal on team radio asking about the possibility of doing a one-stop race, with both still needing to pit.
Race leader, Max Verstappen, pitted on lap 27 and came out around seven seconds ahead of anyone else. His closest rival was his teammate Perez, who pitted the very next lap.
However, Russell reported over team radio that there was rain at one of the corners, although it would later become clear that is was actually just sweat from inside his visor.
At the halfway point, Verstappen was unsurprisingly out in the lead, with Hamilton in second and Sainz in third. Down the bottom of the leaderboard was Norris, who was struggling to recover from his early pit stop.
While Verstappen looked like he was doing to ease to victory, Hamilton’s second place looked even more secure as the race went on. This meant that the battle for third was going to be the one to watch in the closing laps as Perez hunted Russell down on soft tires a few laps newer than the British drivers. However, the Mexican driver was unable to catch the Mercedes.
After 66 laps of racing, it was Verstappen who claimed the race victory along with the fastest lap. Hamilton and Russell completed the podium, a good day for Mercedes as they tested their new approach to their car on a traditional track for the first time. They also moved to second in the Constructors’ Championship, ahead of Aston Martin.
Perez finished in fourth, with Sainz in fifth place. Stroll and Alonso completed an Aston Martin P6-7, with Ocon, Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) rounding out the points paying positions.
Every driver managed to finish the race as well, despite the struggles for some as Logan Sargeant (Williams) finished last out of the 20 drivers on the grid.