Spanish Grand Prix: Hamilton dominates in Barcelona, extends lead

Lewis Hamilton dominated the Spanish Grand Prix, at the Circuit de Catalunya, leading home a Mercedes one-two, taking the chequered flag more than 20 seconds clear of his team-mate, Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton, who started the race from pole position ahead of Bottas and the Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, set a commanding pace from the start, scoring the 64th win of his career and his second of the season.

The win saw Hamiton extend his championship lead to 17 points over Vettel, who managed to bring his Ferrari home in fourth, losing out to Bottas, whom he passed at the start of the race, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen due to a two-stop pit strategy. Ferrari’s gamble to pit Vettel for a second time under a Virtual Safety Car on lap 42 ultimately did not pay off as Mercedes kept Bottas out to the end of the 66-lap race.

The strategy blunder ultimately saw Vettel lose out on a podium finish, as the German’s tyre stop was slow, with his pit release delayed by the pitting Force India of Sergio Perez.

This allowed Verstappen to pass Vettel for third, despite the Dutch driver damaging his front wing against the back of the Williams of Lance Stroll at the Virtual Safety Car restart. However, Verstappen’s pace was unaffected by the damage and he managed to comfortably hold off Vettel to the finish.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who seemed to lack pace throughout the majority of the race, finished a distant fifth – almost 20 seconds behind Vettel – despite putting in a series of flying laps towards the end of the race and breaking the lap record around the 4.6km track.

Ferrari’s woes were worsened by the retirement of Raikkonen, who parked his car on lap 25 with engine trouble. The Fin was running second when he was forced to retire.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen finished sixth, followed by Renault’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. Perez finished ninth for Force India, with rookie Charles Leclerc again bringing home a point for Sauber Alfa Romeo.

The Spanish race – the first European event of the season – saw a chaotic start, with Haas driver Romain Grosjean spinning on the first lap and taking out the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and the Torro Rosso of Pierre Gasly. The incident brought out a Safety Car and Grosjean role in the incident would be investigated by the stewards after the race.

Hamilton’s second win in a row saw the Briton stretch his championship lead to 95 points, ahead of Vettel on 78 and Bottas on 58.

Mercedes also took the lead of the constructors’ championship with 153 points to Ferrari’s 126. Red Bull currently lies in third, on 80 points, while Renault, with 41 points, is ahead of Mclaren by a single point.