Max Verstappen had an incredible weekend in Barcelona, impressing Mark Webber and David Coulthard. Racing on the track of the Spanish Grand Prix seemed like child's play for Verstappen. Webber believes the current world champion won't face any more opposition this season and described the race to Motorsport.com as "boys against men". Coulthard also praised the Dutchman's performance, drawing comparisons to the most dominant weekends of Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton.
In Barcelona, Verstappen achieved a Grand Slam for the third time in his Formula 1 career, demonstrating that he was the race winner, started from pole position, led every lap, and set the fastest lap time. "It was boys against men," Webber summarizes the race. "It's a massive problem for the competition; Red Bull Racing is just unstoppable. There is no competition for Max (Verstappen, ed.) this year," Webber added.
Coulthard also believes it was an extremely dominant weekend for Verstappen. "What Max showed in Barcelona was phenomenal and I think we can easily place him on par with the dominant weekends of, for example, Schumacher, Senna and Hamilton. He seems like a machine right now."
Although there are still fifteen races remaining, the two analysts unanimously agree that the title fight is already over. "In my opinion, Sergio Pérez was never really a threat to Max. You can only have a real title fight towards the end of the season; that's when it gets really exciting, around September or October," Webber explained. "You have to earn those points now and nobody is doing that except Max. It seems like the title fight is already definitively over, or maybe there never even really was one."
However, an interesting battle can still unfold for the second place, both among the drivers and the constructors. Currently, Mercedes is in second place in the World Championship standings, having overtaken direct competitor Aston Martin with a double podium finish last weekend. In the drivers' standings, Pérez still holds an eighteen-point lead over Fernando Alonso, but with Mercedes' resurgence, Hamilton is also closing in.