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Lewis Hamilton has dominated the Spanish Grand Prix, taking his second consecutive victory of the 2018 season. The Briton controlled the race from lights out to the chequered flag, and extends his lead over Sebastian Vettel in the championship fight.
Valtteri Bottas followed his teammate home in second place, making it a 1-2 finish for the Silver Arrows. The German manufacturer now takes the top spot in the constructor's table, as Ferrari suffered a non-finish through Kimi Raikkonen who was hit with engine issues.
Max Verstappen claimed his first podium finish of the year, despite driving an injured car. The Red Bull driver ran into the back of Lance Stroll at a virtual safety car restart, and managed to keep Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel behind in the closing stages.
Daniel Ricciardo drove a lonely race and came home in fifth place. He headed the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and the Renault of Carlos Sainz, who crossed the line in sixth and seventh place respectively.
The other Haas and Renault cars of Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg retired on the opening lap of the race. Grosjean spun at Turn 3 and threw up a lot of smoke. Hulkenberg failed to avoid the sideways Haas and hit him, as did Pierre Gasly.
The safety car was deployed to clear up the mess that was laid down. The field settled down following the safety car, before the pit stop phase came into play. Vettel was the first of the front-runners to come in on lap 17, getting rid of his soft tyres for the harder medium compound.
Bottas pitted two laps later, but Vettel managed to stay ahead in second place. Hamilton stayed out until lap 25, before coming in for the white-walled medium tyre while Raikkonen reported a problem with his car, which would eventually lead to his retirement.
Vettel came in for his second pit-stop after a virtual safety car was called into action while Esteban Ocon's stricken Force India was taken away. Ferrari hoped he would rejoin in third, however a slow stop caused him to fall behind Verstappen, where he would stay until the end of the race.
Fernando Alonso kept up his record of finishing in the points in every race of the year so far, by crossing the line in eighth place. He battled Charles Leclerc for much of the race, who finished in tenth place after Sergio Perez got by for ninth in the final stages.
Fergal Walsh
Circuit de Catalunya - 13 May 2018
G. Zhou
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f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Boring enough race... massive lap 1 crash! Hopefully a lot closer in Monaco