Spanish Grand Prix: Hamilton fends of Vettel

Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to cut Sebastian Vettel's overall lead in the Formula 1 world championship to six points with a quarter of the season completed.

The Mercedes driver's 55th career win, one of his toughest, was hard-fought and tense with Ferrari's Vettel seizing the lead at the start and in remained the hunt all the way to the finish as the tyre strategies played a decisive role in the final result.

Hamilton took the chequered flag 3.4 seconds clear of the Vettel, who did all he could to beat him but in the end fell short as the Mercedes driver made his Pirelli yellow band tyres last longer than they were expected to do so.

Formula 1 fans have waited a long time for a true Hamilton versus Vettel slug-fest and they got it this time out as the pair rubbed wheels when Vettel emerged from the pits and into the path of Hamilton.

The Ferrari driver muscled the Mercedes off the road and to keep the lead. Vettel was on the harder medium tyres and Hamilton on the faster softs. What followed was an intriguing tussle between the two as Hamilton attacked and Vettel defended.

Eventually it was down to tyres. Hamilton took advantage of the extra grip and swooped on Vettel into Turn 1 and opened a three to four seconds gap.

Late in the race, Vettel made his final attack but Hamilton had it covered as he had kept life in his tyres to retain the lead until the end.

Hamilton said on the podium, "I want to say thank you to the crowd for the warm welcome and the support. It did not start off the greatest when I first came, but my appreciation for the country and its people has grown."

"That is how racing should be today. Seb was really fast. The start was not good enough, I got a bit of wheel-spin. I will have to talk to my guys about that," he added.

Vettel's heroics did not go unnoticed as he scooped the fans' Driver of the Day Award, no doubt inspired by his sensational overtake on, Hamilton's teammate, Valtteri Bottas.

While chasing the Mercedes down the main straight, Vettel feinted to the right which Bottas covered (as he did a lap earlier) then when the Finn thought he had the inside covered the Ferrari driver went for the gap, getting two wheels on the dirt but making the move stick.

It was a double dummy, or Formula 1's version of Cristiano Ronaldo's step-over. Gutsy, brilliant stuff!

Vettel said afterwards, "I was pushing. I had a really good start. Lewis and myself picked up wheel-spin straight away, I pulled the clutch in and could gain on him. I stayed ahead and then got into a nice rhythm."

Vettel leaves Spain with 104 points, leading the championship standings by six points over Hamilton, while Mercedes increased their lead in the constructors championship to eight points.

On an afternoon that saw the two multiple F1 world champions in a battle of their own with the rest so far behind they might as well have been in another race, Daniel Ricciardo finished 75.8 seconds behind the winner.

Ricciardo was the only driver not lapped by the top two in a race where both Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen failed to finish after colliding with Max Verstappen exiting the first turn, retiring after a blown engine and first lap collision respectively.

It was disappointment for last year's winner Verstappen, who was an innocent victim of the Turn 1 melee which resulted in a DNF for the teenager.

With three of the front-runners eliminated Force India were the big winners on the day with Sergio Perez and Esteban finishing fourth and fifth respectively with Renault's Nico Hulkenberg sixth.

Local hero Carlos Sainz again delivered a solid performance to claim seventh, as did teammate Daniil Kvyat who finished ninth after starting 19th on the grid.

Splitting the Toro Rosso pair in the final standings was Pascal Wehrlein in eighth for Sauber despite a five seconds penalty and Haas driver Romain Grosjean claiming the final point.

When the lights went out, it was Vettel who made the best start. The German powered away from P2 on the grid and grabbed the lead as he and Hamilton went through Turn One.

Behind, Raikkonen in the second Ferrari was making a move around the outside of Bottas in the second Mercedes. With Red Bull’s Verstappen further outside it was a tight squeeze into the first corner and Raikkonen’s rear right got inside of his countryman’s front left.

There was contact and the impact bounced Raikkonen into Verstappen. The result was suspension damage and early retirement for both.

There was contact, too, between seventh-placed starter Fernando Alonso and ninth on the grid Felipe Massa.

Alonso had worked miracles to haul his underperforming McLaren to P7 on the grid a day earlier, but it was undone when he was hit in Turn 2 by the Williams man. Alonso dropped to P11 and eventually drifted out to P13 by the end of the race.

By lap 14 Vettel had pulled out an almost three-second gap to Hamilton. The German then pitted for soft tyres, leaving Hamilton in clean air. His engineer was quickly on the radio telling the Briton it was “his opportunity, give it everything you’ve got”.

Hamilton responded with a race fastest lap, but Vettel was alive to the threat and fought back with a purple time of his own.

Hamilton made his first stop on lap 22, taking on the medium tyres. He rejoined in third, 7.3 seconds behind Vettel, who was right on the tail of leader Bottas who needed to pit.

Vettel’s frustrations grew as the Finn thwarted his efforts to pass. Vettel eventually got past but Bottas’ baulking lost him more than three seconds to Hamilton.

When Bottas, who needed to pit, allowed Hamilton past, Vettel found himself with just three seconds in hand over the Briton, relatively matched on lap time but on different strategies.

Bottas then made his first stop and resumed in third place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian was a lonely fourth for Red Bull Racing, almost nine second behind the Mercedes and almost 14 ahead of Force India’s Perez.

Ocon was sixth ahead of Sauber’s Wehrelin, who had yet to pit, Renault’s Hulkenberg, the Haas of Magnussen and the Toro Rosso of Sainz.

At the halfway point there was a collision between Massa and Vandoorne as the Brazlian was hit when he tried to pass into Turn One.

The VSC was deployed as Vandoorne ended up beached in the gavel with broken front suspension and while there was a flurry of pit stops in the midfield, Hamilton waited until the VSC was ending to make his stop for soft tyres on lap 36. Vettel immediately responded and took on mediums at the end of the following lap.

He emerged almost alongside the Mercedes man and the pair banged wheels in Turn One. Vettel emerged in the lead but Hamilton had the quicker tyres and pressed for a way past. Vettel made his car as wide as possible and a tit-for-tat battle ensued.

Behind them Bottas’ race came to an end on lap 39 when his power unit failed on the run through Turn 3. The Finn had been forced to revert to an older engine on Friday night after a water leak was detected on his new unit.

At the front Hamilton was still putting pressure on Vettel and eventually, on lap 44, it told. The Briton got a good run out of the final corner and passed the German under DRS into Turn One.

Within a few laps though Hamilton was on the radio complaining that the rear of his set of soft tyres were already overheating. With Vettel on the more durable mediums, the race was not yet over as a contest.

As the laps wound down, it became clear it was a case of whether either of the top two would blink. With lap times similar, would Vettel, who had almost a minute in hand over Ricciardo, attempt a three-stop and take on soft tyres for a late attack on Hamilton as his soft tyres faded? If he pitted would Mercedes respond?

The answer came on lap 58 when Hamilton was told the gap was sufficient to prevent Vettel from trying a strategic gamble and that he should nurse his Mercedes to the flag.

And that was how it remained until the flag. As the front pair threaded their way through traffic the gap widened to over four seconds and after 66 laps Hamilton crossed the line to take a narrow career win - one in which he was made to seat.

Vettel was forced to settle for second ahead of Ricciardo who had a lonely run to his first podium finish since the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix.