BARCELONA, Spain — The Max Verstappen victory tour continued Sunday afternoon at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as the two-time world champion turned in a dominant performance in the Spanish Grand Prix.
It was Verstappen’s third consecutive Formula 1 victory and his fifth in seven events this season.
“It’s a good period, but we have to keep on working and trying to find more performance,” Verstappen said. “I’m happy in the car and I think the last few weekends have been definitely a lot more positive for me. 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.
“There are still a lot of races to come where we again have to perform really well to try and win the race.”
Starting from the pole, the Red Bull driver led from start to finish and increased his lead in the standings.
At the checkered flag after 66 laps, Verstappen was 24.090 seconds ahead of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who brought his Mercedes home second for his best finish of the season.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, George Russell finished third.
“I am so happy after today. I didn’t expect us to come here this weekend and finish second,” Hamilton acknowledged. “I was able to keep everything under control today. We couldn’t keep up with the Red Bull of Max (Verstappen) as they are in another league, but this is still a really positive result. For George to come through from P12 to P3 is also spectacular. I feel incredibly grateful to the whole Team, everyone back at the factory to Team LH all over the world who are always sticking by me.
“We are learning more and more about the car,” he continued. “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.”
Sergio Perez, driving the second Red Bull entry, romped from 11th on the grid to finish fourth
Ferrari mounted Carlos Sainz came home fifth ahead of the Aston Martin machines of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso
Verstappen leads Perez by 53 points in the standings.
Verstappen’s 40th career win puts him one short of Ayrton Senna for fifth in the all-time list.