Lewis Hamilton raced to the top of the Formula 1 drivers championship with a win at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg.
Mercedes’ dominant 2014 rolled along as the pair picked up a 1-2 finish while Red Bull Racing rookie Daniel Ricciardo shook off a couple of near misses to claim his ever podium finish.
Hamilton’s fourth consecutive win came by the slimmest of margins after Rosberg’s alternate tyre strategy enabled the German to close in on his English teammate down the stretch in Barcelona, eventually finishing just 0.6 seconds behind for second place.
Despite complaining of over-steer, Hamilton built a 4.5 second lead by lap 30 and maintained it until the 45th when Rosberg worked on a furious comeback that saw him fall just short of claim a thrilling final lap win.
“I wasn’t close enough but with one more lap I would have been. I’m a bit gutted,” a dejected Rosberg said.
“The start was unfortunately poor,” he continued. “It is a bit of a weakness I have at the moment. Three bad starts in a row and that has cost me. It is not good and we need to work on that.”
Ricciardo celebrated his first podium finish after being disqualified from second in the season opener in Melbourne, coming in 49 seconds after Hamilton.
“We did not have the pace on Mercedes… it is really nice to be on the podium and I am sure I will get to keep it this time,” said the smiling Australian, who had started third. “A lonely third was not a bad result in the end”.
Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel fought back from a 15th placed start to finish fourth
Rosberg now trails Lewis Hamilton 100-97 on the standings, the first time 29-year-old has led the tally since 2012 when he was McLaren.
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:41:05.155
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +0.6 secs
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault +49.0 secs
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault +76.7 secs
5 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +79.2 secs
6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +87.7 secs
7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +1 Lap
8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +1 Lap
9 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes +1 Lap
10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +1 Lap
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Photo: Dan Istitene/Getty Images
