Spanish GP: Hamilton beats Bottas to claim victory in Barcelona

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Lewis Hamilton would lead every lap as he produced a dominant performance at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Briton would take the lead at the start, as he, Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel went side-by-side into Turn 1, and was simply too fast for his Mercedes teammate.

Max Verstappen would take advantage of the German being slow in Turn 3 to move upto third on the opening lap, and strategy would work in his favour to score a second podium finish of the season.

This as Ferrari had another difficult day. 

Vettel fell behind teammate Charles Leclerc after flat-spotting his front-right tyre in the Turn 1 fight, but the delay in making what would be an order to let the Monegasque through, allowed the leading trio to pull away.

Unsurprisingly, the German pitted first with Verstappen switching to a two-stop strategy as Leclerc opted for the hard tyre.

Mercedes would be untroubled at the front, as Hamilton pulls out a 10-second lead over Bottas before pitting.

On his softer tyres, Vettel would catch and be moved ahead of Leclerc before pitting for a second time with Verstappen taking his stop soon after.

Bottas took advantage of the free pit-stop to switch back to softs but a collision between Lando Norris and Lance Stroll at Turn 2 would require a Safety Car.

Hamilton would also switch to softs and remain ahead with Leclerc also pitting and falling back behind Vettel.

At the restart, the top four maintained formation as Gasly challenged Leclerc into Turn 1 with the Ferrari holding position and the two Haas' touched between Turns 1 and 2 but continued.

The pair touched again before damage and worn tyres saw Romain Grosjean struggle for pace, ensuring a seventh-place finish for Kevin Magnussen.

Carlos Sainz would capitalise to claim eighth at his home race for Mclaren, with Daniil Kvyat ninth in the Toro Rosso.

But the Frenchman would just hang on to P10 in the closing laps to claim the final point.

Alex Albon would be the unlucky driver to just miss out on 11th as Daniel Ricciardo failed to make progress through the field and was only P12 for Renault.

Teammate Nico Hulkenberg was forced to start from the pit-lane after using two specs of front wing in qualifying but would move back through the field to claim 13th.

As Kimi Raikkonen's points streak ended in 14th for Alfa Romeo.

Full results from Sunday's race can be seen below:

 

         

 

 

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