@LewisHamilton beats @ValtteriBottas to comfortable #SpanishGP victory. #F1

Lewis Hamilton reclaimed the championship lead from team-mate Valtteri Bottas after winning the Spanish Grand Prix as the Silver Arrows dream run continues.

 

 

Hamilton’s victory ahead of Bottas saw Mercedes score their fifth consecutive one-two finish in a row and put the Briton seven points in-front of the Finn in the Driver’s Championship.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen achieved his second podium of the season taking third for the Milton Keynes based-outfit, after Ferrari’s threat evaporated early and never recovered.

 

How the Spanish GP unfolded

 

Hamilton started second on the grid and crucially moved by polesitter Bottas by winning a three-way fight for the lead into turn one that also included Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

 

Hamilton and Vettel sandwiched Bottas on the run down to the first corner, with the former moving to the inside of his team-mate and Vettel almost nudging ahead of both on the outside.

 

Vettel suffered a huge lockup with his SF90 racer and ran deep into the corner, while Bottas backed out of it in the middle and gave the lead to Hamilton.

 

Bottas corrected a big slide to hold second as Vettel re-joined the track having run narrowly into the run-off area, which sent the Ferrari wide through turn two.

 

That saw the two Ferrari’s come close to tangling with Charles Leclerc being blocked and allowing Verstappen to snatch third.

 

As Hamilton moved comfortably clear of team-mate Bottas, Vettel dropped further back in fourth as the flat spot continued to be a “pain in the arse” for the German.

 

He eventually switched places with team-mate Leclerc on lap 12 with the top five remaining stable for most of the race.

 

The grand prix saw a major difference in strategies with Hamilton, Bottas and Leclerc all on one stop strategies while Verstappen and Vettel ran a two stopper.

 

In the second half of the race, Vettel running the yellow-branded medium rubber, found himself tucked behind team-mate Leclerc, who was on fresher white side-walled hard compounds.

 

Ferrari swapped drivers once again to momentarily free Vettel until he made his final stop with 25 laps remaining.

 

The German emerged in sixth behind Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly, but quickly passed the Frenchman in quick succession to regain fifth.

 

Verstappen’s final stop dropped him to fourth, but the Dutchman was catching Leclerc and composed to retake third place on fresher rubber when the safety car was deployed with 20 laps remaining.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris attempted to pass Racing Point’s Lance Stroll around the outside into the first corner, but the young Briton ran deep and was very tight to the inside as the circuit went left for turn two when Stroll turned in.

 

The pairing collided sending Stroll into the barriers through the gravel and left Norris’s MCL34 too damaged to continue.

 

Hamilton, Bottas and Leclerc all took advantage of making a safe pit-stop under the safety car, which saw the latter fall behind both Verstappen and Vettel again.

 

The race went back to green on lap 54, with Hamilton keeping team-mate Bottas behind with ease as the reigning world champion went onto win by 4.074 seconds with Verstappen completing the top three and Vettel taking fourth.

 

Behind them, Gasly attacked Leclerc in the fight for fifth as the two Haas VF-19’s of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen touched wheels behind them into turn one.

 

Gasly failed to pass Leclerc and then became under threat from Magnussen, who had got by team-mate Grosjean after their minor tangle, but just held onto the place.

 

Magnussen came home in seventh, although he was lucky to be in the fortunate position to grab the place off his team-mate at the restart.

 

The Dane fell behind Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat in the second stint but reclaimed the place when the Faenza-based squad double-pit stopped under the safety car.

 

Toro Rosso did not have Kvyat’s tyres ready, which saw him suffer a very slow stop and held up team-mate Alexander Albon and dropped him out of the points as he waited for his team-mates stop to end.

 

Kvyat was relegated to 10^th but made his way back to ninth as Grosjean’s race deteriorated.

 

After suffering contact with Magnussen, Grosjean was under pressure from McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and took to the first corner run-off area as they banged wheels.

 

With Sainz up into ninth place, Albon had the chance to get back into the points and attacked Grosjean in the final laps but could not get by as the latter took the final point.

 

Both Renault R.S.19’s of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg finished in 12^th and 13^th respectively and ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who was 14^th and Sergio Perez who was 15^th.

 

The other C38 of Antonio Giovinazzi was 17^th and finished in-front of the two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica who were brought up the rear and a lap down.

 

Formula 1 Emirates Gran Premio De Espana 2019 Race Results Classification (66 Laps)

 

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	66	1h35m50.443s
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	66	4.074s
3	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	66	7.679s
4	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	66	9.167s
5	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	66	13.361s
6	Pierre Gasly	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	66	19.576s
7	Kevin Magnussen	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	66	28.159s
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	66	32.342s
9	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	66	33.056s
10	Romain Grosjean	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	66	34.641s
11	Alexander Albon	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	66	35.445s
12	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	66	36.758s
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	66	39.241s
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	66	41.803s
15	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	66	46.877s
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	66	47.691s
17	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	65	1 Lap
18	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	65	1 Lap
–	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	44	Collision
–	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	44	Collision

 

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 112 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 105 Points.
3. Max Verstappen – 66 Points.
4. Sebastian Vettel – 64 Points.
5. Charles Leclerc – 57 Points.
6. Pierre Gasly– 21 Points.
7. Kevin Magnussen – 14 Points.
8. Sergio Perez – 13 Points.
9. Kimi Raikkonen – 13 Points.
10. Lando Norris – 12 Points.

 

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 217 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 121 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 87 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 22 Points.
5. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 17 Points.
6. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 15 Points.
7. Alfa Romeo Racing – 13 Points.
8. Renault F1 Team – 12 Points.
9. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 6 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 0 Points.

 

Round six of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous and historic Circuit de Monaco for the Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2019 from May 23-26.