Lewis Hamilton wins Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton dominated the Spanish Grand Prix to take his fourth victory in six races so far this year.

The Mercedes driver led every lap from pole position and was simply too fast for Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who was unable to challenge.

Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas took third, failing to catch Verstappen despite Mercedes' efforts on strategy.

Hamilton's win extended his World Championship lead to 37 points over Verstappen, who is six ahead of Bottas.

It was the 88th victory of Hamilton's career and he is now just three from Michael Schumacher's all-time record of wins.

It was also his 156th podium finish, a new record, beating the previous mark, also held by Schumacher.

Total control for Hamilton

In temperatures of 30C, the race was gruelling physically for all the drivers, but there was no sign of the expected challenge to Hamilton from Verstappen.

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff had said on the eve of the race that Verstappen was favourite because he had shown stronger pace when the teams were doing their race preparation in practice.

But once converting his pole position into a lead at the first corner, Hamilton was always in command.

He took it easy in the opening laps, to ensure he could make his required pitstop schedule but after 10 laps started to increase the pace and Verstappen could not keep up.

"I was just in a daze out there," Hamilton said. "It felt really good. It was a surprise because we had this problem with the tyres [at the last race] and the work we did was what meant we could do this."

What happens next?

A much-needed weekend off after six races in seven weeks before another run of three in a row, starting with the Belgian Grand Prix at classic Spa-francorchamps.

What they said

"I

Lewis Hamilton: was in a daze out there," he says. "It felt really good. It was a fantastic effort from the team. It was a surprise because we had that problem with the tyres last weekend, but we seem to have understood it."

"It

Max Verstappen: was good to split the two Mercedes. I didn't have the pace like Lewis but I'm happy with second. The start was crucial to get ahead of Valtteri, then I was just trying to go at my own pace."

"The

Valtteri Bottas: start was the key point, I lost a position and then had to push hard to make ground and suffered the tyre condition. In stint two I was behind Max and everyone knows how hard that it. Off the start, Lewis got away and I did not have a tow like those behind."