HAMILTON REIGNS IN SPAIN
Defending world champ leads Mercedes one-two finish at Catalunya
LEWIS Hamilton extended his lead in the world championship to 17 points yesterday when he roared to an imperious victory as Mercedes scored a one-two triumph at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The defending four-time world champion dominated from start to finish, save for a spell during the mid-race pit-stops, and clocked a series of record laps as he registered his second successive win.
It was the 64th victory of his career — only Michael Schumacer on 91 has more — and came from his 74th pole.
He joined seven-time champion Schumacher and two-time champion Mika Hakkinen as a threetime winner in Spain.
“That’s more like it guys, great job,” said Hamilton on team radio.
“Today I felt that synergy with the car that I have not felt all year so now we have to do it again.”
Valtteri Bottas came home second in the second Mercedes ahead of Max Verstappen of Red Bull who resisted late pressure from four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who led Hamilton by 17 points after the opening three races this year.
The German, who made a good start, was second until he took an ill-judged second pit-stop, under Virtual Safety Car conditions, midway through the race, dropping two places.
Bottas said: “Of course,I wanted to fight for the win, but this is a good result for the team.”
Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fifth in the second Red Bull ahead of Kevin Magnussen of Haas and Spaniards Carlos Sainz, of Renault, and two-time champion Fernando Alonso, of McLaren.
Mexican Sergio Perez of Force India came home ninth ahead of the impressive Monegasque Charles Leclerc of Sauber.
Only 14 of the 20 starters completed the race.
1 Lewis Hamilton (Bri) Mercedes 307.104km in 1hr 35min 29.972sec, 2 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes at 20.593s, 3 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 26.873, 4 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 27.584, 5 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 50.058, 6 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas 1 lap, 7 Carlos Sainz Jr (Spa) Renault 1 lap, 8 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1 lap, 9 Sergio Pérez (Mex) Force India 2 laps, 10 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Sauber 2 laps, 11 Lance Stroll (Can) Williams 2 laps, 12 Brendon Hartley (NZ) Toro Rosso 2 laps, 13 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber 2 laps, 14 Sergey Sirotkin (Rus) Williams 3 laps.
Nico Hülkenberg (Ger) Renault, Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas, Pierre Gasly (Fra) Toro Rosso, Kimi Räikkönen (Fin) Ferrari, Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India, Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren.
1 Lewis Hamilton (Bri) 95 pts, 2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) 78, 3 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) 58, 4 Kimi Räikkönen (Fin) 48, 5 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) 47, 6 Max Verstappen (Ned) 33, 7 Fernando Alonso (Spa) 32, 8 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) 22, 9 Kevin Magnussen (Den) 19, 10 Carlos Sainz Jr (Spa) 19, 11 Sergio Pérez (Mex) 17, 12. Pierre Gasly (Fra) 12, 13 Charles Leclerc (Mon) 9, 14 Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) 8, 15 Lance Stroll (Can) 4, 16 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) 2, 17 Esteban Ocon (Fra) 1, 18 Brendon Hartley (NZ) 1.
1 Mercedes 153 pts, 2 Ferrari 126, 3 Red Bull 80, 4 Renault 41, 5 McLaren 40, 6 Haas 19, 7 Force India 18, 8 Toro Rosso 13, 9 Sauber 11, 10 Williams 4.