Lewis Hamilton took his second race victory of 2018 at the FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2018 in Spain, while a poor strategy call on the Ferrari pit wall potentially cost Sebastian Vettel a podium finish. Compared to the other races that the we’ve had this season, the race was not nearly as action-packed.
Off the line, Lewis Hamilton was able to maintain his lead. But his teammate was overtaken by Sebastian Vettel, giving the Ferrari driver P2. Further behind the leaders, Carlos Sainz got out of the shape on the outside of turn two, holding up Fernando Alonso and potentially causing some front wing damage. But it was Romain Grosjean who had the biggest trouble. He spun around on the outside of turn three, collecting Nico Hülkenberg and Pierre Gasly. With three cars stricken on the circuit, the safety car was deployed.
On the restart, things remained orderly at the front, with Hamilton maintaining the lead. Vettel was the first of the lead cars to pit for fresh tyres at the end of lap 18. By this point, Hamilton had a 10 second lead. Bottas pitted a lap after Vettel but failed to overcut him. Because Vettel was stuck behind Kevin Magnussen it was close, but Bottas came out just a few car lengths behind as Vettel overtook Magnussen at the pit exit.
During the pit stop window, Kimi Räikkönen fell victim to an engine issue, forced to park the car in the garage for the rest of the day. By the time Hamilton pitted, he had earned a 19 second lead. The Red Bull drivers pitted around the halfway point of the race, opting to try the single stop strategy instead of the two-stop strategy adopted by Ferrari and Mercedes.
With a puff of smoke, Esteban Ocon’s race came to an end on lap 40. The virtual safety car was deployed to allow for the safe removal of the stranded car. This triggered a pit stop for Vettel, while the Mercedes drivers stayed on the track. With no soft compound tyres remaining in his allocation, the medium compound tyre was the only choice. He came out behind Max Verstappen, who caused himself some front wing damage after colliding with the rear of Lance Stroll under the VSC.
After few laps after the race resumed, Stoffel Vandoorne became the latest victim of reliability issues. He lost power down the main straight and parked up at the pit exit. The marshals were able to safely push him back into the pit lane to avoid the safety car.
In the closing laps of the race, Hamilton had a comfortable 19 second race lead over his teammate, who was forced to do some minor fuel saving. Despite the damage to his front wing, Verstappen showed strong pace, preventing the Ferrari of Vettel from gaining any time.
With his second race victory of the season, Hamilton strengthened his lead at the top of the World Drivers’ Championship table. Verstappen earned his first podium position of the 2018 season, while the Ferrari strategy call to pit under the virtual safety car didn’t quite pan out.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
