Taking his second consecutive win of the season, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton led the 2018 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix to the chequered flag. The Briton started the race on pole and managed to retain the lead throughout despite close competition from Ferrari and Red Bull. However, Hamilton's pace was no match for other drivers as he won the race with a gap of over 20 seconds over teammate Valtteri Bottas, while Red Bull's Max Verstappen finished third, taking his first podium of the year after an early retirement from Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari had a far from perfect end to the Spanish GP as Sebastian Vettel finished fourth.
(Valtteri Bottas showed incredible pace and managed to retain second place)
The opening lap started with a crash as Romain Grosjean in the Haas spun at Turn 3, collecting Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly in the process. All three drivers were out of contention almost immediately sustaining heavy damages, and warranted the need of a safety car on the track at the start of Lap 2. While Hamilton continued to lead the Spanish GP, Bottas and Vettel switched places just before the safety car was called with the latter now two seconds behind Hamilton.
Also Read: F1 2022 Hungarian GP Preview: One Last Hurrah Before The Summer Break
The safety car was called off at the end of Lap 6, and Hamilton wasted no time to sprint extending his lead by 7 seconds. Meanwhile, McLaren's Fernando Alonso too stormed past Esteban Ocon (Force India) to take 10th, while running on supersofts. Vettel who had pitted for fresh mediums during the safety car, found it difficult to match Hamilton's pace at the restart. Meanwhile, Bottas on the softs was showing incredible pace compared to the Ferrari. Mercedes decided to pit Bottas a lap after Vettel in one stop strategy with the driver emerging second overall, despite a slow pitstop where he lost 1.4 seconds in the process.
(Kimi Raikkonen lost power on Lap 25 and retired from the race)
However, Ferrari's really issues started on Lap 25 with Raikkonen retiring. The Finn driver had a new engine after Friday practice and complained of losing power. He eventually came to a halt and had to be wheeled in to the pits. The incident promoted to Verstappen to fourth and eventually third after the second Ferrari went into the pits.
Also Read: Inside Line F1 Podcast: Raikkonen Needs A New Challenge?
For Vettel, the pitstop strategy wasn't the best as the driver was called in on Lap 40 for a second pitstop. The Virtual Safety Car was out after Ocon's car was in smokes parked at the side after a power unit issue. The two-stop strategy cost the German driver his podum as he joined behind Bottas and Verstappen and could not pass either till the end of the race. He did manage to keep Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo at a distant fifth.
(Sergio Perez passed Charles Leclerc on Lap 60 to take P9)
Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas managed to finish sixth ahead of Renault's Carlos Sainz in seventh place. However, showing some incredible progress was Alonso who picked up pace and managed to fend off other drivers as he finished the Spanish GP in eighth place. For teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, the race ended prematurely on Lap 48 after a mechanical issue. The first DNF for McLaren this year.
The last two points were taken by Sergio Perez of Force India and Charles Leclerc of Sauber, after Perez passed the latter on Lap 60 and held on to the spot. Interestingly though, Brendon Hartley of Torro Rosso fended competition quite in the battle of 12th, behind Lance Stroll of Williams. Drivers Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) and Sergey Sirotkin (Williams) were the last to cross the finish line.
Unlike some of the earlier races, the Spanish GP lacked the drama that we were looking forward to, but Mercedes certainly had something to look forward as the team performed brilliantly with a 1-2 finish. Hamilton has consolidated his lead further in the drivers' standings and now leads over Vettel by 17 points.
