Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen takes his third win in a row at Barcelona and the championship lead over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who suffered from power issues while in P1.

Verstappen didn't have an easy race as well, as the Red Bull driver struggled once again from DRS issues. He even went off track during Lap 9 at Turn 4, the same as Carlos Sainz, apparently due to the strong wind. 

We did it!!! 🤩

Definitely not the smoothest of days but we’ll take that! 🥵💪

To have another One-Two makes me very proud. A big thank you goes out to @SChecoPerez for being a great teammate once again 🤝

And also thanks to @redbullracing for the mega job on strategy 🙌 (1/2) pic.twitter.com/xjjhJMPiaI

— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) May 22, 2022

Such an unexpected mistake really surprised the Dutchman, who then talked about it after the race:

"A bit of a race with two halves, because the first 30 laps were very frustrating for me after I went off at Turn 4, which really caught me by surprise because I didn't feel like I was actually braking later or throwing more speed into the corner."

Citing the difficult track conditions, he went on to explain what went wrong there:

"But it was very gusty out there today, one lap it felt all stable and the next lap suddenly you could have more oversteer in places so that probably caught me out by surprise and that wasn't ideal."

Luckily, he "felt" like the off track accident didn't ruin his RB18's floor:"Once I was back on the track, the car felt like normal - so I was lucky there of course."

Verstappen also discussed the "extremely painful" moment in which his DRS stopped working in the midst of his battle with Russell for P2, and how he realised it wasn't working as it should:

"I could have shouted [something] back on the radio, but there is nothing you can do because I mean, I'm not stupid; once you get the light and the activation beep then you press the… paddle and if it doesn't open, there's clearly an issue."

The issue, which had already ruined his second pole attempt yesterday in Q3, ultimately solved itself, as the Dutchman was able to end the race in P1, but at the moment the situation appeared rather tragic, and will definitely need to be checked ahead of Monaco:

"I spammed it like 50 times at one point on the straight and it's just not opening so it was clearly an issue. I tried all different kind of things, but it was just malfunctioning. We clearly have an issue there on this wing.”

However, in spite of his machinery issues, he thoroughly enjoyed his fight with George Russell, which he will remember positively after winning:

"Of course I was a bit frustrated at the time because I couldn’t get [Russell] because of DRS issues, but the fight itself was really cool also."

"I think that lap where I did go down the outside and George went around the outside and I was around the outside of Turn 3 again, I think that was a really cool fight."

“I look back at it and I’ll smile now; at the time of course I was a little bit frustrated. But it was a really good and tough battle, I think.”

A moment that completely changed the course of the Spanish GP was Charles Leclerc's  retirement during Lap 28 due to engine issues.

Verstappen reckons that, with him still in the race, it would have been hard to get the lead because the Monegasque was "pulling away" and had an impressive 12 seconds gap over Russell, P2 at the time.

"We have to be realistic; we were off on one-lap pace and in the race, the first stint before I went off the track, Charles was pulling away a little bit.

It's the first seasonal DNF for the Scuderia driver, whereas Verstappen didn't end the race in Bahrain and Australia.

"Of course, we have the lead of the championship, but you see you have to be super reliable… we have to work on our performance a little bit more."

"But for now I think this race – very positive for the team," he concluded happily.