Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton led yet another Mercedes 1-2 snoozefest in the 2019 Formula One season – their fifth in a row – with the easy victory at the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix. Hamilton defeated his teammate, Valtteri Bottas with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finishing a distant third to claim the final podium position.
Bottas was the pole-sitter but Hamilton got a better start from the front row and both had to initially fend off a second row charge from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, but Vettel flat-spotted his tires trying to pass Bottas and Hamilton, which allowed Verstappen to pass him and dropped him [after some in-race shuffling with his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc] to his eventual finishing place of fourth.
Despite only six cars having a realistic shot at winning the race, Mercedes’ domination was so complete that three cars were lapped within 20 laps and nearly 3/4 of the field were on pace to be lapped had there not been a late-race crash among back markers that allowed a few cars to un-lap themselves.
With the victory, Hamilton reclaims the season lead in the 2019 Formula One driver’s championship and Verstappen moves into third overall.
2019 Top 10 Spanish Grand Prix
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
6 Pierre Gasly Red Bull
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas
8 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso
10 Romain Grosjean Haas