Hamilton dominates in Spain– Lewis Hamilton has dominated the Spanish Grand Prix, taking his second consecutive victory of the 2018 season. The Mercedes driver was in control of the race from lights out to the chequered flag and as a result, extends his lead over title rival Sebastian Vettel in the championship fight to 17 points.
Bottas followed Hamilton home in second place to make it a 1-2 finish for the team. The Mercedes now takes the top spot in the constructor’s table with 153 points – 27 ahead of Ferrari who only came home with one car after Kimi Raikkonen retired with engine issues.
Max Verstappen managed to hold off Sebastian Vettel to claim his first podium finish of the year, despite having front wing damage. Verstappen ran into the back of Lance Stroll at a virtual safety car restart causing the damage.
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Daniel Ricciardo drove a pretty lonely race and came home behind Sebastian Vettel in fifth place. He headed the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and the Renault of Carlos Sainz, who crossed the line in sixth and seventh place respectively.
The other Haas and Renault cars of Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg retired on the opening lap after Grosjean spun at Turn 3 and lit up his rear tyres sending a wall of smoke across the track. Hulkenberg failed to avoid the sideways Haas and hit him, as did Pierre Gasly.
After the safety car was deployed the field settled down before the pit stops came into play. Vettel was the first of the front-runners to come in on lap 17, getting rid of his soft tyres and opting for the harder medium compound.
Valtteri Bottas pitted two laps after but due to a slightly longer stop by the Mercedes pit crew Vettel managed to stay ahead in second place. Hamilton stayed out until lap 25, before coming in for the medium tyre while Kimi Raikkonen reported a problem with his car, which would eventually lead to his retirement.
Vettel came in for his second pit-stop after a virtual safety car was called into action while Esteban Ocon’s stricken Force India was taken away. Ferrari hoped to get Vettel back out in third, however, a slow stop by the Ferrari mechanics caused him to fall behind Verstappen and that is where he stayed until the end of the race.
Fernando Alonso kept up his record of finishing in the points for McLaren in every race of the season so far crossing the line in eighth place. He had a brilliant battle with Charles Leclerc for much of the race, who finished in tenth place after Sergio Perez got by for ninth in the final stages.