Lewis Hamilton takes Victory in Spain after a race-long battle with Max Verstappen

The Spanish Grand Prix has historically been a Mercedes dominated track, so it was no surprise when Lewis Hamilton took his silver arrow to a career milestone of 100 pole positions. The lights went out at the start of the race and a brilliant getaway and daring lunge into turn 1 saw Max Verstappen take an early lead in the race.

Soon after the start, Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri broke down on the side of the track, resulting in a safety car while the Marshalls cleared away the car. Racing quickly resumed and most of the top 10 runners held their position during the restart.

As the race progressed and the first set of pitstops were made, we learnt that Red Bull was committing to a one-stop strategy around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, whilst Hamilton was opting for two. With around 20 laps to close a 20 second gap, Lewis Hamilton had a big job on his hand and he most certainly delivered.

With six laps to go, Hamilton used the superior performance of his newer tyres to pass the Dutchman into Turn 1 and check out for his 98th victory, and fifth straight win at the circuit. As a result of this Verstappen chose to pit for soft tyres in order to secure the extra world championship point for fastest lap.

Lewis Hamilton chased Max Verstappen down in the last 1/3 of the race to take his 98th career victory

With Hamilton and Verstappen having been in a class of their own in Spain, Bottas came home a distant third after his own race-long battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished an excellent fourth for Ferrari, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez put in a solid recovery drive from P8 on the grid to take fifth.

The Spanish Grand Prix was yet another chapter in the epic battle between Verstappen and Hamilton that has been and will surely continue to play out throughout the remainder of the season…

Race Results
PosDriverCarTimePoints
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:33:07.68025
2Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Honda+15.841s19
3Valtteri BottasMercedes+26.610s15
4Charles LeclercFerrari+54.616s12
5Sergio PerezRed Bull Racing Honda+63.671s10
6Daniel RicciardoMcLaren Mercedes+73.768s8
7Carlos SainzFerrari+74.670s6
8Lando NorrisMcLaren Mercedes+1 lap4
9Esteban OconAlpine Renault+1 lap2
10Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri Honda+1 lap1
11Lance StrollAston Martin Mercedes+1 lap0
12Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing+1 lap0
13Sebastian VettelAston Martin Mercedes+1 lap0
14George RussellWilliams Mercedes+1 lap0
15Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo Racing+1 lap0
16Nicholas LatifiWilliams Mercedes+1 lap0
17Fernando AlonsoAlpine Renault+1 lap0
18Mick SchumacherHaas Ferrari+2 laps0
19Nikita MazepinHaas Ferrari+2 laps0
NCYuki TsunodaAlphaTauri HondaDNF0

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