Pedri inflicted a blow to momentarily silence the Konya Büyükşehir Belediye Stadium just six minutes into proceedings, effortlessly jinking away from Hakan Çalhanoğlu and picking out the bottom corner.
Eren Elmalı came agonisingly close to providing an immediate response, but Spain kept coming forward and scored an exquisite second 22 minutes in, with Marc Cucurella’s low ball into the box being followed by two quick passes and a composed first-time finish from Mikel Merino.
Moments after Simón had palmed a venomous Kenan Yıldız strike wide, Yamal had a glorious chance to add to Spain’s tally but blazed his shot over. Uğurcan Çakır then rushed out to smother Nico Williams, and a slaloming Yamal run culminated in the teenager shooting wide.
Despite all of the positives for Luis de la Fuente, there was concern in the 44th minute with Williams being forced off through injury. Nevertheless, there were more Spanish celebrations before the break with Pedri cutting the ball back for another first-time Merino finish.
Çakır got down brilliantly to deny Ferran Torres after the break, but Torres didn’t take much longer to score on his 50th Spain appearance as the forward clinically rounded off a swift counter that was started by his own header.
Merino then completed his hat-trick, making full use of the space he was afforded to send a spectacular strike from outside the box, curling into the top corner.
La Roja weren’t letting up at all and boos started to ring out as Mikel Oyarzabal glided up the pitch and laid the ball off for Pedri to score his side’s third goal in nine minutes.
Jorge de Frutos was then introduced for his debut and almost had an assist with Fermín López’s attempt being deflected behind by Merih Demiral, as Spain continued a run spanning over two years in which they haven’t been beaten inside 90 minutes, while also going three points ahead at the top of WCQ Group E with just two matches played.
They also inflicted a humiliating first defeat in four competitive matches for Turkey, who will still hope to reach the finals for just the second time in their history.