Hamilton flies to victory in Spain as Mercedes dominate & Ferrari founder; Bottas P2, Verstappen holds off Vettel for P3

The Mercedes factory team displayed their usual superiority at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, dominating the Spanish Gran Prix on Sunday. Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton rocketed to the victory from pole, avoiding the mayhem and mistakes of the pursuers behind him to take his second win on the trot after starting the season 0-3. The mini-streak has boosted Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings over his nearest rival, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, opening up a 17 point lead over the German. Hamilton’s victory was also he third of his career the Spanish GP and made it a remarkable 4 out of the last 5 wins for the Silver Arrows at this most familiar and yet somewhat treacherous track, which all the teams use for preseason testing but somehow bites many of them come race day. While Hamilton lucked into his first win of the season at Baku two weeks ago when his teammate Valtteri Bottas suffered an ill-timed puncture while leading in the closing laps, the English ace drove one of his classic dominating “Hammer Time” races in Barcelona and the outcome was never really in doubt. Suddenly, after a bit of a inconsistent start and a serious threat by Ferrari, Hamilton and the Silver Arrows look like the championship favorites once again. The team were helped immensely by another strong drive from Bottas, who put aside the massive disappointment of his lost win in Azerbaijan, recovered from a so-so start to the race and then outpaced the rest of the field to come home P2, a massive points haul for mighty Mercedes.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Everything good for Mercedes came at the expense of Ferrari, as unreliability and questionable strategy came back to bite the fabled team from Maranello. The most serious setback for the Scuderia came when their number two man, Kimi Raikkonen, who podium at the last race and was running easily in the top five on Sunday, experienced a mechanical failure on Lap 25 that forced his retirement shortly thereafter. That removed a key strategic piece from the Scudeia’s chessboard their after the team had already gambled with Vettel’s tire strategy by pitting him early on only Lap 18 for the hardest compound Medium Pirelli’s. The decision was all the more peculiar in that the cars had run behind a Safety Car for 5 laps after a big first lap shunt caused by Haas’ Romain Grosjean losing control and careering across the track in a cloud of smoke, collecting Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly in the process. So when Ferrari brought Vettel in even after all that slow running in the first part of the race it look like they were playing out a two-step strategy and Raikkonen would be the insurance policy. However, Hamilton ran all the way to Lap 26 on his original Soft tires and it was soon clear that the performance of the Mediums did not deteriorate as much as perhaps Ferrari suspected when Ham the Man kept laying down lap records despite the switch to the harder rubber. It all still might have worked out when Vettel dived for the pits again under a Virtual Safety Car on Lap 41 due to the on track engine failure of Esteban Ocon’s Force India, a favorite Ferrari tactic this year and one that has paid them good dividends.

But the stop went long at over 5 seconds when the team had to hold Vettel until the other Force India of Sergio Perez could clear him in the pits. That enabled Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to come round Turn 1 in front of Vettel’s exiting Ferrari at the blend line. And despite damaging his front wing when he ran into the back of the slow Williams of Lance Stroll after the end of the VSC, the Dutch phenom was still able to keep Vettel behind him lap after lap on this circuit where overtaking is very difficult. It was an excellent drive from Verstappen at the scene of his maiden victory back in 2016 and a much better result than the double DNF he and teammate Daniel Ricciardo managed two weeks ago after a tangle on the city streets of Baku. For Ferrari it was a big disappoint with only one car finishing and then with only fourth place points. It’s an ominous sign that Mercedes appear to be back on the top of their game, although their cars may not be as well suited for the next race at slow and tight Monaco as we well and truly enter the European part of the schedule.

Ricciardo did decently but could never match the pace of the front for and was clearly slower than his teammate Verstappen even with a sound front wing. He also didn’t help his chances with a needless spin coming out of the VSC period. The Australian veteran finished P5 but it still made for a much needed strong points day for the Red Bull team overall. Even as his Haas stablemate Grosjean appears to have taken two steps backwards with a terrible start to the 2018 campaign, Kevin Magnussen is definitely on the ascent. The Dane seems to have bonded very well with his Ferrari powered chassis and even if his fellow drivers regard him as reckless on the road he has used that aggression to good effect more often than not. Running virtually a solo race in Spain with big gaps in front and behind him and with no one to tangle with, Magnussen piloted his Haas to an outstanding P6 finish. Carlos Sainz drove his lone remaining factory Renault to a strong P7 finish at his home Grand Prix as his fellow countryman and boyhood idol Fernando Alonso took his McLaren to P8. Sergio Perez managed to salvage P9 for Force India and Chrles Leclerc was once again impressive in taking the last points paying position at P10 in the normally underwhelming Sauber. There is good reason to think that the eyes of Ferrari are upon Leclerc for a seat at the big team when the day finally comes and they put Raikkonen out to pasture.

Top 10 finishers of the Spanish GP:

Complete race results available via Fomula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks time, the grand old dame of F1, Monaco on Memorial Day Sunday. Hope to see you then for one of the true highlights of the autosport year!