Spanish F1 Grand Prix 2023 Results: Max Verstappen Tops Lewis Hamilton to Win Race

Only seven races into the 2023 season, Max Verstappen is building a nearly unassailable lead atop the Formula 1 standings.

The reigning champion earned his fifth victory and third in a row Sunday in the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

With 144 points, Verstappen had a 39-point lead over teammate Sergio Perez for first place in the driver standings entering Sunday. Fernando Alonso was the only other driver with at least 70 points.

To say the 25-year-old is on another level would be an understatement.

The Spanish Grand Prix was basically over the moment Verstappen claimed the pole. He went wire to wire and had the fastest lap in Spain.

Fans couldn't help but have some fun with the degree to which he was dominating. Lewis Hamilton was 24.090 seconds back in second place when he crossed the finish line.

This is Hamilton's second runner-up finish of the season. Even though he was a distant second behind Verstappen, his fans were happy to at least see him beating out the rest of the field.

It was a good day for Mercedes as a whole with George Russell holding off Perez for third place to get onto the podium for the first time this season.

The 2022 campaign was nothing short of a disaster for Mercedes with Hamilton openly lamenting the state of his car. The team is making great strides in 2023 after spending the offseason addressing those issues.

The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal is the next stop on the F1 calendar. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but Verstappen enters as the defending champ after claiming the checkered flag in 2022. It was the first race back in Montreal since 2019 with the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the event in 2020 and 2021.

Sooner or later Verstappen's hot streak will come to an end. But we're already reaching a point where it may not matter much toward the battle for the driver's title.