1 Mercedes best-of-the-rest behind dominant Verstappen
Max Verstappen wasn’t at his imperious best despite winning the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position with a 24.09s margin over second place, but such is Red Bull’s superiority that the world champion can still have a (slightly) off day and emerge on top. A typically robust defence of his lead from the challenge of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz into Turn 1 will have raised the hackles of some in the fan community, but it was a succession of track-limits violations while running well ahead later in the race which attracted the attention of the stewards.
Max qualified nearly half a second faster than Sainz, his companion on the front row, and was on course to go even faster on his second Q3 run when race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase signalled him to abort the lap in case that set of softs were required on Sunday. At this point Red Bull was still worried about the possibility of a three-stop race, particularly since Verstappen was flying solo once again up front – team-mate Sergio Pérez checked out of qualifying early after skittering through
