Lewis Hamilton beaten by Nico Rosberg in Spanish GP
- Published
By Andrew Benson, Chief F1 writer at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya |
Spanish Grand Prix |
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Venue: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Dates: 8-10 May |
Nico Rosberg took a dominant win in the Spanish Grand Prix as Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton fought back from a slow start to take second.
Hamilton was initially stuck behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel but switched to a different strategy to get ahead.
The German was third ahead of Williams' Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen.
The result means Rosberg has reduced Hamilton's advantage in the championship to 20 points, while Vettel is 31 points adrift in third place.
It was Mercedes' most dominant grand prix since the first race in Australia.
Ferrari had come to this weekend with a major upgrade package, with revisions to almost every aerodynamic surface of the car, but Mercedes were perhaps further ahead than they had been all season.
Lotus's Romain Grosjean struck two of his mechanics as he came in to the pits during the race
The team's jackman had to rest an ice pack on his lower abdomen following the incident
Rosberg converted his pole position into a lead at the first corner and simply cruised into the distance as Vettel held up Hamilton behind him.
Mercedes urged Hamilton to try to the Ferrari, but he told the team it was impossible to get close enough to overtake on the pit straight even with the help of the DRS overtaking aid.
Mercedes decided their best option was to give Hamilton some clear track, and told him that they would switch to a three-stop strategy and try to Vettel at the end of the race.
But Hamilton did not need to overtake the Ferrari on track.
Stopping on lap 32 to fit the slower 'hard' tyre, Hamilton immediately set the fastest lap of the race and proceeded to take huge chunks out of Vettel's advantage.
Twenty seconds behind when he reed, Hamilton had cut Vettel's lead in half by the time the Ferrari driver made his second and final stop eight laps later.
Vettel reed 13.5 seconds behind Hamilton, who continued to pull away until he was 23 seconds in front by the time of his final stop on lap 51, which was comfortably enough to allow him to re in front of the Ferrari.
Now 17 seconds behind Rosberg, Hamilton fancied his chances of catching his team-mate for the win, but was told by his engineer Peter Bonnington that he had too much to do and to "consolidate" second place.
Hamilton pressed Bonnington, saying: "Is it impossible"Graphic image of, from left to right, Alex Albon, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Oliver Bearman. It is on a blue background with 'Fan Q&A' below the drivers " loading="lazy" src="https://image.staticox.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Face%2Fstandard%2F480%2Fsprodpb%2F7ff9%2Flive%2Fd42302e0-34b3-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg" width="385" height="216" class="ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950"/>
