Race 5 of the Formula 1 season in Spain saw Lewis Hamilton earn his second win of the season, and his 55th career win after managing a lovely overtake on Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel on lap 44.
At the start, Sebastian Vettel managed to overtake Hamilton going into turn 1. However, it was not all that great for fellow Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, who got hit by Valtteri Bottas, who in turn hit Red Bull's Max Verstappen, which ended Raikkonen and Verstappen's race. Also, Fernando Alonso made contact with Felipe Massa, which severely hampered the latter's race, whilst Alonso had dropped down to 11th.
On around lap 15, Sebastian Vettel pitted from the lead, which left Hamilton out upfront, with Bottas in second. Vettel chose to go on the soft tyres, whilst Hamilton stayed out. On lap 17, Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz pitted at the same time, and Sainz nearly overtook him, and tried to do so on the exit, and ended up running on the grass.
Hamilton stayed out. Meanwhile, Vettel began to close up the gap to Hamilton, who eventually pitted on lap 22 and went onto the mediums. Bottas was still to pit, and was ahead of Vettel by just under a second, whilst Hamilton was around 8 seconds behind. Vettel struggled to get past Bottas, and this enabled Hamilton to close the gap to Vettel. Vettel eventually managed to get past Bottas with an amazing double dummy. Bottas then pitted on lap 27 to go onto the medium tyres, and re-emerged back in third place.
Lap 34 was arguably the most crucial moment for the race. Stoffel Vandoorne collided with Felipe Massa, and the former had to retire from the race. This prompted a Virtual Safety Car (VSC), which later played to Hamilton's advantage, because at the end of the VSC period he pitted onto the soft tyres. Vettel then pitted a lap later, and re-emerged just ahead of Hamilton after a wheel-to-wheel battle going into turn 1 where they did hit wheels, and it could be argued that Vettel forced Hamilton off track.
On lap 40, Valtteri Bottas retired due to an engine failure, which prompted yellow flags in sector 2. Hamilton, with his tyres having more grip, pushed hard to try overtake Sebastian Vettel, and was closing the gap to him, and finally managed to overtake him on lap 44.
At this point the concern became whether Hamilton had pushed the tyres too hard in trying to overtake Vettel, and also whether Vettel would convert to a 3-stop strategy. Ultimately none of this materialised, and Hamilton crossed the line comfortably ahead of Vettel to claim his second win in Barcelona, and his second win of the season, lapping everyone bar Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, who finished over a minute behind in third.
Sergio Perez finished an impressive fourth for Force India, with team-mate Esteban Ocon finishing fifth to record his best ever finish in Formula 1. Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth for Renault, making it their best finish since they returned to Formula 1 as a works team.
Pascal Wehrlein finished seventh on the road, but was handed a 5-second time penalty after failing to keep to the right of the pit entry bollard, and was a result demoted to eighth, with Sainz inheriting seventh. Daniil Kvyat scored his first points since Australia, finishing 9th, whilst Romain Grosjean finished in 10th. Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen suffered a puncture towards the end, and dropped down the order. The rest of the finishers were (from 11th down): Marcus Ericsson for Sauber, Fernando Alonso for McLaren, Felipe Massa for Williams, Kevin Magnussen for Haas, Jolyon Palmer for Renault and Lance Stroll for Williams, all 2 laps down behind winner Lewis Hamilton.
Classification:
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
Pascal Wehrlein - Sauber-Ferrari
Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Jolyon Palmer - Renault
Valtteri Bottas, Stoffel Vandoorne, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen all failed to finish the race and were therefore not classified.
World Championship classification:
Sebastian Vettel - 104 points
Lewis Hamilton - 98 points
Valtteri Bottas - 63 points
Kimi Raikkonen - 49 points
Daniel Ricciardo - 37 points
Max Verstappen - 35 points
Sergio Perez - 34 points
Esteban Ocon - 19 points
Felipe Massa - 18 points
Carlos Sainz - 17 points
Nico Hulkenberg - 14 points
Romain Grosjean - 5 points
Pascal Wehrlein - 4 points
Kevin Magnussen - 4 points
Marcus Ericsson - 0 points
Lance Stroll - 0 points
Fernando Alonso - 0 points
Antonio Giovinazzi - 0 points
Jolyon Palmer - 0 points
Stoffel Vandoorne - 0 points
Constructors' Championship standings:
Mercedes - 161 points
Ferrari - 153 points
Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 72 points
Force India-Mercedes - 53 points
Toro Rosso - 21 points
Williams-Mercedes - 18 points
Renault - 14 points
Haas-Ferrari - 9 points
Sauber-Ferrari - 4 points
McLaren-Honda - 0 points