Hamilton cruises to Spanish GP victory!

Lewis Hamilton took an easy victory at the Spanish Grand Prix to further extend his lead in the championship. The Brit led every lap from pole to complete a dominant weekend ahead of Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.

On a track where overtaking is difficult, it was set to be a 66-lap strategy battle and that’s what it turned into.

However, the top three were spread out for the majority of the race and the order rarely changed.

At the start Hamilton got a strong start, but the same couldn’t be said for his teammate. Bottas got a bit bogged down and Verstappen moved to the outside to pass. To make things worse, Lance Stroll put in a great move down the inside, squeezing the Finn and taking P3.

It took a couple of attempts, but Bottas used DRS to get back ahead of Stroll on Lap 5, cruising through on the pit straight. However, those few laps behind the Racing Point were costly for Bottas, losing over three seconds to leader Hamilton.

Verstappen was the first of the front three to pit, coming in for the medium tyre on Lap 22. The Red Bull team pulled of a lightning quick 1.9 second stop to get the Dutchman back out.

Mercedes reacted with Hamilton and Bottas, but the Brit’s stop was slow. He didn’t lose position to Verstappen, but the delay allowed the Red Bull star to close the gap to four seconds.

Stroll and Sergio Perez looked to be stretching their first stint to go for a one-stop. Stroll came in on Lap 29 and rejoined the track with no problems, but a lap later Perez lost a place to the McLaren of Carlos Sainz.

It wasn’t a massive problem for the Mexican, who overtook Sainz the following lap, going round the outside at Turn 1.

Charles Leclerc was attacking Lando Norris for ninth when Ferrari’s season got even worse. His engine cut out at the chicane, spinning him round. He came in the following lap and retired from the race.

Verstappen was once again the first to pit for the second round of stops, coming in on Lap 42 for another set of mediums.

It soon became clear it was going to be tough for the Racing Point duo to complete the race on a one-stop. Stroll pitted on Lap 44, and returned to the track just ahead of the hard-charging Sainz.

Perez stayed out due to the presence of Sainz, with Racing Point fearing an undercut from the home hero.

However, Perez had his afternoon spoilt a bit by a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags.

Bottas came into the pits for softs on Lap 49, putting on softs. Two laps later, runaway leader Hamilton made his final stop for medium tyres, coming back out in the clear air he'd been enjoying since the start.

Sainz continued his strong race to move up to sixth with an easy move on the one-stopping Sebastian Vettel, who had a quiet race.

Hamilton finished the race over 20 seconds clear of Verstappen, but was denied the grand slam as Bottas snatched the fastest lap.

Stroll took fourth due to his teammate's penalty, although Perez managed to hold fifth, his one-stop strategy paying off. Sainz came home in sixth, ahead of Vettel and Alex Albon, with Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris rounding off the top ten.