Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton executed a near-perfect race at the Spanish Grand Prix, leading every lap from pole to record his fifth Spanish Grand Prix win, and his fourth victory of the season, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen coming home ahead of the sister Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.
The seeds of Hamilton’s victory were sown by a strong start for him, as Bottas dropped from P2 to P4 off the line, before eventually recovering to third, while Verstappen jumped to second at the getaway, but ultimately wasn’t able to make any in-roads into Hamilton’s lead, as he finished 24s adrift.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez crossed the line in fourth but dropped to fifth thanks to a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags, allowing Lance Stroll to claim P4.
Perez eventually slotted into fifth, ahead of the McLaren of Carlos Sainz – who maintained his 100% record of finishing in the points at his home race – and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, who benefitted from a late decision to switch him onto a one-stop strategy to come home in seventh.
He finished ahead of the second Red Bull of Alex Albon, the Thai driver hurt by having had to switch early to a set of hards, while the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly and the second McLaren of Lando Norris rounded out the top 10 – the expected strong race pace from Renault having failed to materialise on race day, as Daniel Ricciardo wound up 11th, with Esteban Ocon 13th.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, was the only driver to retire from the race, the Monegasque suffering an electrical issue at the halfway point that pitched him into a spin at Turn 15, before eventually boxing his SF1000. (F1)
