Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez as Charles Leclerc’s strong weekend faltered due to a power unit issue.
George Russell continued his hot streak of finishing every race in the top 5 in a much-improved Mercedes to take third.
The win continued Verstappen’s streak of winning every race he has finished this season.
The Dutchman also snatched the driver’s championship lead from Leclerc after the Ferrari driver failed to see the finish line.
Action at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was nonstop from the off.
Leclerc led from the start as Lewis Hamilton suffered a puncture after a collision with Kevin Magnusson in the very first lap and dropped down to last.
Carlos Sainz and Verstappen then went off track on Turn 4 at different times to drop down the order early on.
That left Leclerc with a comfortable lead and a free pit stop by Lap 22.
The championship leader seemed to be cruising to straightforward victory for Ferrari until his engine gave way on Lap 27.
Verstappen was battling his own car malfunctions, a faulty DRS, as he tussled with Russell for P2 before Leclerc’s retirement.
Now battling for the lead, the Dutchman pitted a second time for softer compound on Lap 29 and caught up to Russell’s tail by Lap 37, when Russell swapped for another set of mediums.
Sergio Perez was briefly in the lead during this cat and mouse chase but pitted soon after for a new set of mediums.
With the Red Bulls comfortably in the lead Verstappen pitted again on Lap 45 with a new set of mediums to set off in chase of Perez.
The team order allowed Verstappen to pass Perez and eventually win the Spanish Grand Prix by 13 seconds with Perez taking P2 and the fastest lap having stopped for softs late on.
Russell finished third while Sainz finished fourth despite having dropped outside the top 10 early on after his Turn 4 spin.
Hamilton had passed Sainz for P4 with five laps left but had to drop to P5 having been told to lift off by his Mercedes team.
Valtteri Bottas took P6 for Alfa Romeo ahead of Esteban Ocon.
Lando Norris finished P8 from P11 for McLaren while Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (from the back of the grid) and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (from P13) rounded out the top 10.
