Hamilton holds off Vettel to win dramatic battle

montmelo (spain) — Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix after an ecstatic battle with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel on Sunday in a race that had four retirements and one Virtual Safety Car period over the 66 laps.

The Briton took his second win this season, the 55th win of his career, and the 108th podium of his career. Vettel who finished second was followed by Daniel Ricciardo at third place for his first podium this season,

At the Catalan circuit in Montmelo, an interesting race unfolded with a melee at the start, followed by the much awaited battle royale between Hamilton and Vettel. The contest saw some great overtakes and manoeuvres, a spectacle the Formula 1 fan has been looking forward to in this new era in the sport.

The melee at the start involved Valtteri Bottas, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen where Raikkonen was sandwiched between Bottas on the inside and Verstappen on the outside.

From what it appeared Bottas and Raikkonen’s car made contact, where the Mercedes driver hit the Ferrari’s rear, pushing him into Verstappen.

A result of the episode was the Red Bull and Ferrari retiring at the start of the race. For Valtteri, the race continued till Lap 40, where he pulled over and had to stop the car because of a reliability issue relating to loss of power.

The mighty battle between Vettel and Hamilton started from the Turn 1 to the chequered flag. The Ferrari driver jumped into lead at the start of the race, after which he pit for the first time at Lap 14, and got held up by Bottas for a while. Lewis pit at Lap 21 leaving Bottas in lead to hold and block Vettle behind.

Further down the race after Stoffel Vandoorne’s stoppage resulted in the first safety car period, where Mercedes pit Hamilton just when the VSC period end, an interesting blunder by the Silver Arrows outfit. Ferrari followed suit by pitting Vettel straight after on the same lap to switch to mediums for a final tyre change.

With Hamilton on the soft tyre and Vettel on the medium, Ferrari attempt an undercut strategy while the German head out of the pits to re-join the track. While re-joining the track he emerged ahead of the Briton, followed by the two going wheel to wheel into the first few corners.

While the two were battling each other they banged wheels at a point when the German tried to overtake the Briton.

Vettel led the race till Lap 44 when Hamilton overtook him in a brilliant move coming out of Turn 6 Lap 44. From thereon to the chequered flag it was overlapping cars and pushing it to the limit for both drivers.

A result of the current race was also the interesting gap between the top three and the rest of the grid. Drivers finishing between fourth place to ninth were one lap down and drivers finishing between P10 to P16 were two laps down from the race leader. Even third place finisher Ricciardo was 75 seconds behind Lewis and 73 behind Vettel.

sports@khaleejtimes.com