Inside Line: Barcelona highlights and musings

In a nutshell, Mercedes brought out their 'party mode' once again and Lewis Hamilton was simply on another planet, with teammate Valtteri Bottas sniffing his fumes while the rest - and I mean Ferrari as well as Red Bull - must be pondering what just hit them

Here are some observations in the wake of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

Hamilton’s second win in a row and second of the season. His 64th career victory and third in Spain. He now holds the record for wins from pole (41). He also has a record 30 successive races in the points. This was also Mercedes’ first one-two of the campaign and sent them back on top.

It was a return to form for Mercedes that will have their rivals scratching their heads in bewilderment and asking: Where did that come from?

Rewinding to the season-opening qualifying, where Hamilton claimed pole position by seven-tenths of a second and we all got a confirmed taste of the fabled 'party mode' in action.

But 'party mode' disappeared in the next three races and has obviously returned with much fanfare for the first leg of the European season, which also happened to be attended by the Daimler and Mercedes board members as well as big boss Dieter Zetsche. Coincidence?

Vettel, second after the first corner, finished off the podium for the third race in a row and is now 17 points behind Hamilton. He made two stops, while others made just one, and it cost him. Raikkonen retired after cruising back to the pits with reduced power.

Despite post-race denials, the consensus in the paddock is that the Reds got their sums wrong and botched up by calling Vettel in for a second stop while their rivals stayed out. A podium looked a possibility for the German but instead, he had to settle for fourth and watch Hamilton extend his championship lead to 17 points.

Raikkonen's engine failure was a mystery to him, all he could say was that he suddenly lost power and aborted his pitstop, before limping back to the pits whereupon they retired the car. Not a good weekend for Maranello.

The post-Baku collision truce is in place but is it really as solid as the team and drivers are making it out to be. Time will tell.

Verstappen’s first podium of the season and the 150th for Red Bull in Formula 1. The Dutchman hailed his own "clean race" perhaps forgetting how he clattered into the back of Lance Stroll's Williams and broke the endplates on the Red Bull's front wing.

Ricciardo set the fastest lap of the race, a record 1:18.441, on lap 61 but never looked seriously on it all weekend, not helped by the fact that Red Bull of firmly third in the pecking order.

Renault moved above McLaren and into fourth place for the first time, albeit by a single point. Sainz scored in his home race for the fourth year in a row. Hulkenberg retired for the second successive race, taken out by Grosjean at the start.

Hulkenberg is struggling with a patch of bad luck - wrong place, wrong time syndrome - but in truth Renault did not really take much of a step forward or backward with their new raft of upgrades.

McLaren drop down but Alonso, who started eighth, again delivered in his home race. The Spaniard has scored in every race so far. Vandoorne pulled over with a suspected gearbox problem, the team’s first retirement of the season.

Much was expected from the McLaren 'MCL33-B' which broke cover featuring a heavily revised front nose as well as several other upgrades. Alonso hailed the improvement, but it was again more his tenacity that brought home the result than a good car at his disposal.

They are still very far off the pace of fellow Renault-powered Red Bull who they targeted to match, if not beat, at the start of this season.

Magnussen, who started seventh, has scored all of his team’s points so far, moving them above Force India. He had a lonely race but unlike his teammate never put a foot wrong and delivered.

Grosjean spun at the start and took out Hulkenberg and Gasly. He has a three-place grid penalty for Monaco, but many questions are now being asked of the Frenchman who has hit a bizarre spate of bad form. Is he becoming a liability for Haas?

Ocon retired with an oil pressure problem and is fast getting a reality check of sorts as his teammate continues to rack up the points.

Perez started 15th and lost positions at the start avoiding Grosjean. He made the right strategy call by pitting when the virtual safety car was deployed but ran over front wing debris from Verstappen’s car that caused some damage.

Hartley started at the back of the grid after a big crash in final practice on Saturday meant he missed qualifying. He then kept out of trouble but did not have the firepower to score points on the day.

The New Zealander is facing speculation about his future, as he appears to be struggling to make the transition from WEC to F1, and Red Bull's famously fickle patience is fast running out.

Gasly was taken out on lap one, through no fault of his own, by an out of control Grosjean.

Leclerc scored points for the second race in a row, setting him up nicely for the next in his hometown of Monaco. Ericsson defended well against Sainz early on.

The rookie outshining his more experienced teammate yet again.

The former champions are rock bottom and with little in the way of positive news as they wrestle with aerodynamic problems and a chassis that their drivers have no confidence in. Rivals retiring ahead flattered their result.

All weekend long they were anchored to the bottom of the timing screens and there appears no end in sight to a crisis brought about by the fact that the FW41 is probably the worst car on the grid and perhaps the worst car they have ever built at Woking.