(Reuters) – Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to stretch his Formula One championship lead to 53 points and continue Red Bull’s sweep of the season with the team’s seventh success in as many races.
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton finished a distant second for Mercedes with team mate George Russell completing the podium on a cloudy but dry afternoon at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s closest championship rival, finished fourth after starting 11th.
The win was Verstappen’s fifth of the season, third in a row and the double world champion’s 40th in Formula One. The Dutch 25-year-old also secured a bonus point for fastest lap.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Angus MacSwan)
