Hamilton Beats Verstappen In The Spanish GP

JAKARTA - Mercedes racer Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix for the fifth time in a row after on Sunday defeating his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen with a brilliant strategy battle.

Verstappen, who led for most of the race, had to settle for runner-up in his 100th race with the Red Bull team after finishing 15.841 seconds from Hamilton who claimed his third victory this season, according to the official Formula 1 website.

Valtteri Bottas, had lost her position at the start of the race because of Charles Leclerc, but was able to secure an additional podium for Mercedes in P3.

The British rider's victory was made possible by two pitstop strategies that worked better than his rivals.

"I feel great after this, I feel I can do it again," said Hamilton.

"I'm so tight that I'm not even sure I can keep the tires (behind the dirty wind), so it's a gamble but an extraordinary strategy for the team."

Although the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit did not host this year's pre-season test for the first time, the riders are very familiar with the characteristics of the circuit at Montmelo and recognize it as a track with few opportunities to overtake.

This year Turn 10 underwent minor modifications to reduce the braking zone, but Turn 1 still offers the best opportunity for overtaking.

Hamilton started from pole for the 100th of his career, but Verstappen forced the Mercedes rider wide in the first corner and took the lead on the opening lap.

However, Verstappen lost its margin of advantage over Hamilton after the Safety Car was sent off on lap 9 because Yuki Tsunoda's AlphaTauri car broke down at Turn 10.

Using a different strategy, Verstappen pits early on lap 24 for medium tires, while Hamilton tries to keep his tire life longer on the track and builds gaps.

Hamilton entered the pit on lap 29, but as he exited the pit track he saw Verstappen easily take the lead.

With the newer tires, Hamilton slowly cut his distance from the Red Bull racer to one second.

However, Mercedes decided to pull Hamilton back into the pits for new medium tires after lap 42 while Verstappen looked unhappy as his team held on to a single pitstop strategy.

Hamilton also demonstrated his class as king of the Catalonia circuit and world champion seven times, overcoming a 22-second deficit from Verstappen with new medium tires to take over the race leadership on lap 60.

Even Pete Bonnington, Hamilton's race engineer was bursting with excitement. "You did it Lewis, we made the strategy work beautifully."

Unhappy Red Bull was forced to pull the Dutch racer who had run out of tires to the pits with five laps remaining to secure points in P2.

"We were just too slow, I don't know how we should keep them behind," said Verstappen.

With the win, Hamilton widened his distance at the top of the standings to 14th from Verstappen who loomed over second after four races.

Valtteri Bottas overtook Norris with a six-point advantage to occupy third place with 47 points.

Charles Leclerc proved his pride to beat rivals McLaren after he drove his Ferrari number 13 to finish P4 in front of Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

Daniel Ricciardo became the fastest McLaren driver that day after achieving his best result this season in P6, about one second ahead of the second Ferrari car driven by Carlos Sainz who had to settle for P7.

Meanwhile, Lando Norris added to McLaren's points coffers by finishing P8 when Alpine team riders Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly completed the top ten, even though the AlphaTauri team rider received an additional time penalty due to the car's position that did not fit on the starting line.

The next Formula 1 Grand Prix will take place at the Monaco highway circuit on 23 May.