Spanish F1 Grand Prix 2019 Results: Lewis Hamilton Wins, Mercedes Dominate Again
May 12, 2019
Mercedes continued their dominance of the 2019 Formula One season on Sunday, as Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas. It was the team's fifth-straight double to start the year.
Main rivals Ferrari bungled their tactics throughout the race, with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finishing behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The result puts Hamilton seven points clear of Bottas in the drivers' standings, while Vettel trails the leader by a whopping 49 points. Mercedes' advantage over Ferrari in the constructors' standings is 94 points.
Here are the results from the Spanish Grand Prix:
The current championship standings can be found on F1's official website.
Hamilton surged into the lead in Turn 1, taking advantage of a poor approach from Vettel, who got off the line better than the two Mercedes drivers but ran wide and lost places.
The aggressive move not only opened the door for Verstappen, it also ruined his race strategy immediately:
While Verstappen was able to hang with the Silver Arrows, not losing much time on Hamilton or Bottas, Ferrari lost tons of space to the front three. Even though Vettel was hindered by the flat spot, the Squadra didn't resort to team orders, leaving Leclerc stuck behind his slower team-mate.
He did not get a free pass on Vettel until the gap to Hamilton was already nearly 10 seconds, a dreadful tactical decision. The mistake soon became even more evident, as Leclerc dropped his team-mate in just a few corners.
And things got even worse for the German, who soon requested a pit stop to get off the damaged tyres. Ferrari couldn't immediately find him a gap to pit, to Vettel's frustration:
A slow pit stop saw Vettel drop back to 10th place, well out of range of the top four.
At the front, Hamilton continued to churn out solid laps, taking a significant lead over Bottas and Leclerc. Verstappen had followed Vettel into the pit lane, opting for soft tyres and a two-stop approach.
Leclerc's stop also wasn't the smoothest, and the former Sauber man opted for hard tyres. It wasn't all bad news for Ferrari, however, as Vettel was flying on the fresh rubber:
Combined with the odd choice to put Leclerc on the much slower hard compound, Vettel was soon back in DRS range. But like before, Ferrari were hesitant to issue team orders, holding up their faster driver.
Just as the race seemed lost for the Italians, Lando Norris and Lance Stroll made contact, and their incident brought out a safety car. Hamilton was not pleased:
The break in action didn't harm his momentum, however, as he started to build his lead again when the safety car pitted. He also locked up the fastest lap for an extra point.
Behind the Mercedes duo, Vettel tried to get into DRS range of Verstappen, but the Dutchman held on for the final podium spot.
The next race will be the Monaco Grand Prix on May 26.