Max Verstappen, Red Bull Masterful Again at F1 Spanish Grand Prix

Max Verstappen claimed the 40th win of his Formula 1 career in comfortable fashion as Mercedes captured a double podium finish.

The win total is good for sixth on the F1 all-time list—just one win shy of Ayrton Senna. Senna made 161 starts in his career, while Verstappen notched his 40th in start No. 171,

Autoweek rounds up the talking points from the Spanish Grand Prix. \

Verstappen’s Total Domination

Max Verstappen has dominated the season so far and at a high-speed circuit that suited both his and the Red Bull RB19’s strengths he was at his most emphatic.

Verstappen topped all three practice sessions before sweeping to pole position by half a second, a margin that he could have comfortably increased had he not abandoned his final push lap once it was clear no-one would beat his time.

On race day, Verstappen kept Carlos Sainz at bay into Turn 1, and from there wasn’t seen again, securely executing a two-stop strategy at the high-energy Barcelona track, while leading every single lap to win over runner-up Lewis Hamilton by 24 seconds.

The margin of victory could probably have been greater if Verstappen had any need to properly push. Allied to fastest lap it marked a weekend sweep for Verstappen, who grabbed each point up for grabs to extend his championship lead to 53 points. That’s a two-race buffer over Sergio Perez after just seven rounds of the season.

“I’m happy in the car and I think the last few weekends have been definitely a lot more positive for me,” said Verstappen. “This is one weekend where I think it went really well, but we also know that maybe at some other tracks it’s not like this.”

It was another challenging weekend for Perez. He struggled in qualifying, dropping out in Q2 and therefore lining up only 11th, and recovered to fourth. Given second was on a plate, due to the pace of the RB19, it was another six points dropped.

“I am disappointed, we have ultimately paid the price for a bad qualifying,” said Perez.”

Mercedes Overtakes Aston Martin

Mercedes introduced its updated W14 upgrades in Monaco, but Barcelona marked a first true test of the refined package.

It was a positive outcome for the Silver Arrows as the updates gave the team a stronger baseline moving forwards. Red Bull remains in another zip code—at least in the hands of Verstappen—but Lewis Hamilton worked his way from fourth to second, while George Russell surged from outside of the top 10 to join his distinguished compatriot on the podium.

The result elevated Mercedes above Aston Martin and into second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

“I didn't expect us to come here this weekend and finish second,” said Hamilton. “I was able to keep everything under control today. We are learning more and more about the car. I am hoping that the car continues to be like it was this weekend. I am hoping from here onwards we are in a good place. For sure, there will be some circuits where the car isn't quite in the right window but hopefully the next few races should suit us.”

Russell echoed Hamilton’s sentiments in hoping the W14 can perform as well at upcoming circuits: “We had a strong race here last year, so the next couple of races will be key to see if we can consistently produce results like this and close the gap to Red Bull.”

Boss Toto Wolff was also encouraged by the performance of the car.

“We took a decision to go in another direction early in the season,” he said. “It was a risky move, but everyone has just pushed forward and we've got a good race car. We now need to just keep chipping away. We've got a long way to go to catch Red Bull but it's good to see we are moving in the right direction.”

Aston Martin, meanwhile, had its least competitive Sunday display of the season, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso coming home sixth and seventh respectively. The pair were line astern after 66 laps but were over a minute behind victor Verstappen, and half a minute behind the Mercedes drivers.

“We should not be disappointed with this result – even though we did not quite have the pace to fight for the podium today,” urged boss Mike Krack. The team has still made sizeable year-on-year progress and will be a podium contender again soon.

Leclerc’s Horrible Weekend

For the first time in two years Charles Leclerc finished a race outside of the points on merit, a day after equaling the worst qualifying result of his career.

In a season which has been characterized by setbacks, operational errors and mistakes, this was another dismal outcome for a driver who harbored title ambitions before the season began.

Leclerc was in the mix during practice, but failed to make it out of Q1 in qualifying. Believing there was something amiss at the rear of the car, Ferrari made changes to the back end of the SF-23, along with the suspension, and Leclerc was forced to start from the pit lane as a result.

Leclerc made his way into the midfield , which became 11th when a time penalty was issued to Yuki Tsunoda. Leclerc is now a scarcely believable 128 points behind Verstappen.