Spanish GP: Verstappen completes a grand slam win in Barcelona

Max Verstappen completed the grand slam of victory, the fastest lap and leading every lap at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Dutchman’s only threat came in the opening few hundred metres as he held off Carlos Sainz through the first few corners before easing to a comfortable win in Barcelona.

A big story though was Mercedes as they showed much-improved pace to complete the podium with Lewis Hamilton leading teammate George Russell.

Race Review

Verstappen held off a strong challenge from Sainz to retain the lead into Turn 1 as Lance Stroll moved up to third on the opening lap.

Starting third, Lando Norris picked up damage against Hamilton through Turn 2, pitting for a new front wing and dropping to last in the process.

Fernando Alonso made a good start up to sixth while Sergio Perez only gained one place up to P10 from his grid slot.

Verstappen wasted little time opening a gap over Sainz in the lead as Hamilton repassed Stroll for third.

Russell also made moves, gaining six positions in the first seven laps to run sixth.

Attention quickly turned to tyre management with the soft tyres beginning to degrade by Lap 10, causing many in the midfield to pit for the hard compound.

Only the two Red Bulls and Logan Sargeant opted to start on medium tyres, while Charles Leclerc began on hards from the pit lane.

Esteban Ocon was the first of the leaders to stop followed by Stroll and Sainz. In contrast, Hamilton and Russell were happy on their used softs even matching the pace of Verstappen.

Running nine and 10 laps longer than Sainz respectively in their first stints, the two Mercedes’ pitted for mediums and used the extra grip following to jump the Ferrari into the podium places.

In the meantime, Verstappen was able to box and switch to hard tyres while retaining a comfortable lead in the Red Bull.

It was trickier for teammate Perez on the same strategy, who emerged in P9 after his pit stop, but the Mexican quickly started making gains back up to the top five.

Sainz triggered the second round of pit stops moving onto hard tyres, with Russell responding to stay ahead of the Spaniard but switching onto softs.

Hamilton and Perez did likewise but Checo went onto a new set of the red-striped Pirellis and showed incredible pace to charge ahead of Sainz up to fourth and lap a second faster than the Mercedes’ at times.

Further back, Alonso and former teammate Ocon had a close call battling for seventh as the home favourite swooped past the Alpine on the run to Turn 1.

At the front, Verstappen also made a second stop with his main competition being track limits as he picked up a warning from the stewards.

That didn’t stop him from pushing for the fastest lap and storming to victory by 24 seconds ahead of Hamilton in second place.

Russell held off Perez to claim his first podium of the season in third and Sainz a distant fifth.

The two Aston Martins followed in sixth and seventh as Stroll led Alonso by less than a second over the finish line.

Esteban Ocon was eighth, Yuki Tsunoda crossed the line ninth but dropped to P11 with a five-second penalty for pushing Zhou Guanyu off track.

That promoted the Alfa Romeo driver up to P9 and Pierre Gasly claimed the final point in 10th.

Leclerc was less than a second behind the Alpine in 11th on a frustrating day for the Ferrari driver ahead of the demoted Tsunoda.

Oscar Piastri ran in the points for a while but slumped to 13th, in front of Nyck De Vries in 14th.

Nico Hulkenberg was 15th, Alex Albon 16th, Norris ultimately finished 17th after starting third, Kevin Magnussen 18th, Valtteri Bottas 19th and Logan Sargeant last as all 20 drivers reached the chequered flag.