Lewis Hamilton has scored back-to-back victories after a dominant display leading a Mercedes one-two home at the Spanish Grand Prix.

 

 

Hamilton comfortably beat team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 20.593 seconds after Sebastian Vettel made a surprise second pitstop under the virtual safety car, which dropped the German off the podium.

 

In Vettel’s place was Max Verstappen, who held off the Ferrari despite a damaged front wing to claim his first podium of the year.

 

How the Spanish GP unfolded

 

 

At the start, Vettel jumped ahead of Bottas into turn one before drama unfolded behind with a multi-car crash at turn three and the race was immediately stabilised under the deployment of the safety car.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean had moved ahead of Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso after the duo ran deep into turn two but overreacted to team-mate Kevin Magnussen’s wobble ahead of him and ran wide on the entry of the sweeping turn three entry.

 

The Frenchman lost the rear of his VF-18 racer as he kept planted on the throttle, which spun up the rear tyres sending him back onto the track and was collected by Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso.

 

 

All three retired instantly after a long clean up got underway, before the race resumed on lap seven.

 

Hamilton flew clear at the race restart, comfortably building a solid seven second lead over the next 10 laps, until Vettel made his first stop.

 

Vettel struggled with a slow out-lap on his fresh white-branded mediums, whilst Bottas kept pumping best sector times and the Finn looked to have second place locked in.

 

But Bottas endured a shocking pitstop, losing 1.4 seconds to Vettel and came out just behind the Ferrari.

 

The proceedings were interrupted on lap 25 by two incidents involving the Scuderia.

 

The first one saw Kimi Raikkonen slow down from fourth place and brought his SF71H racer back to the pits to retire with the Finn taking on a new engine and power-unit components after Friday’s practice session.

 

The second one came 15 laps later, when Esteban Ocon parked his smoking Force India VJM11, which deployed the virtual safety car and Ferrari brought in Vettel and ran a two-stop strategy as the leaders continued on a one stopper.

 

Vettel lost track position to Bottas and Verstappen, but the German remained in-front of Ricciardo.

 

Vettel, with much fresher mediums, started to reel in Verstappen, when the Dutchman fought on with a damaged front wing after clipping the Williams at the virtual safety car restart.

 

Verstappen just finished ahead of Vettel by 0.711 seconds to clinch his first podium of the season behind the Silver Arrows duo of winner Hamilton and second-placed Bottas.

 

Ricciardo came home in fifth in the other Red Bull RB14 but a spin at the virtual safety car restart dropped the Australian further away from team-mate Verstappen but smashed a fastest lap time at the end.

 

Magnussen brought his Haas VF-18 over the line in sixth place while Renault’s Carlos Sainz managed to hold off a fuel problem in the closing stages of the race to take seventh.

 

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso finished in eighth place after falling back in the first lap chaos and ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez who was ninth.

 

Both Alonso and Perez got by Sauber’s Charles Leclerc near the end, but the Monegasque driver still took his second consecutive points finish, taking 10^th place and the final point on offer.

 

Williams’ Lance Stroll finished outside the top 10 in 11^th place and in-front of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley who was 12^th and the other Sauber of Marcus Ericsson who ended the Spanish Grand Prix 13^th.

 

The other Williams of Sergey Sirotkin ended the race 3 laps down and at the rear.

 

The Formula 1 Gran Premio De Espana Emirates 2018 Race Results Classification (66 Laps)

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	66	1h35m29.972s
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	66	20.593s
3	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	66	26.873s
4	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	66	27.584s
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	66	50.058s
6	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	65	1 Lap
7	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1 Team	65	1 Lap
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	65	1 Lap
9	Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	64	2 Laps
10	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	64	2 Laps
11	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	64	2 Laps
12	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	64	2 Laps
13	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	64	2 Laps
14	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	63	3 Laps
–	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	45	Retirement
–	Esteban Ocon	Sahara Force India F1 Team	38	Retirement
–	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	25	Retirement
–	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	0	Collision
–	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	0	Collision
–	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team	0	Collision

 

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 95 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 78 Points.
3. Valtteri Bottas – 58 Points.
4. Kimi Raikkonen – 48 Points.
5. Daniel Ricciardo – 47 Points.
6. Max Verstappen – 33 Points.
7. Fernando Alonso – 32 Points.
8. Nico Hulkenberg – 22 Points.
9. Kevin Magnussen – 19 Points.
10. Carlos Sainz – 19 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 153 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 126 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 80 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 41 Points.
5. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 40 Points.
6. Haas F1 Team – 19 Points.
7. Force India F1 Team – 18 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda – 13 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 11 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

Round six of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to the jewel in the crown, the streets of Monte Carlo for the Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2018 from Thursday May 24 to Sunday May 27.