Hamilton wins in Spain with Vettel second

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Hamilton wins in Spain with Vettel second
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton celebrates on the podium.

Montmelo, Spain - The Briton took his second win this season, the 55th win of his career

By Niharika Ghorpade

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Published: Sun 14 May 2017, 8:08 PM

Last updated: Tue 16 May 2017, 12:28 AM

Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix after an ecstatic battle with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel on Sunday in a race that had four retirements and one Virtual Safety Car period over the 66 laps.
The Briton took his second win this season, the 55th win of his career, and the 108th podium of his career. Vettel who finished second was followed by Daniel Ricciardo at third place for his first podium this season,
At the Catalan circuit in Montmelo, an interesting race unfolded with a melee at the start, followed by the much awaited battle royale between Hamilton and Vettel. The contest saw some great overtakes and manoeuvres, a spectacle the Formula 1 fan has been looking forward to in this new era in the sport.
The melee at the start involved Valtteri Bottas, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen where Raikkonen was sandwiched between Bottas on the inside and Verstappen on the outside. From what it appeared Bottas and Raikkonen's car made contact, where the Mercedes driver hit the Ferrari's rear, pushing him into Verstappen. A result of the episode was the Red Bull and Ferrari retiring at the start of the race. For Valtteri, the race continued till Lap 40,  where he pulled over and had to stop the car because of a reliability issue relating to loss of power. 
The mighty battle between Vettel and Hamilton started from the Turn 1 to the chequered flag. The Ferrari driver  jumped into lead at the start of the race, after which he pit for the first time at Lap 14, and got held up by Bottas for a while. Lewis pit at Lap 21 leaving Bottas in lead to hold and block Vettle behind.   
Further down the race after Stoffel Vandoorne's stoppage resulted in the first safety car period, where Mercedes pit Hamilton just when the VSC period end, an interesting blunder by the Silver Arrows outfit. Ferrari followed suit by pitting Vettel straight after on the same lap to switch to mediums for a final tyre change. With Hamilton on the soft tyre and Vettel on the medium, Ferrari attempt an undercut strategy while the German head out of the pits to re-join the track. While re-joining the track he emerged ahead of the Briton, followed by the two going wheel to wheel into the first few corners. 
While the two were battling each other they banged wheels at a point when the German tried to overtake the Briton. Vettel led the race till Lap 44 when Hamilton overtook him in a brilliant move coming out of Turn 6 Lap 44. From thereon to the chequered flag it was overlapping cars and pushing it to the limit for both drivers. 
A result of the current race was also the interesting gap between the top three and the rest of the grid. Drivers finishing between fourth place to ninth were one lap down and drivers finishing between P10 to P16 were two laps down from the race leader. Even third place finisher Ricciardo was 75 seconds behind Lewis and 73 behind Sebastian. Henceforth the teams will be seen bringing more aggressive upgrades in the further races to shorten the gap, however engine upgrades will only be seen at Montreal, which is a power hungry circuit. 
Finishing in fourth place was Force India's Sergio Perez followed by team-mate Esteban Ocon in fifth place. Following the two Force India's was Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg who finished sixth and gained the maximum number of positions in the race after starting at P13 on the grid. 
Toro Rosso driver and local Spaniard Carlos Sainz finished seventh after a 5-second penalty for Pascal Wehrein propelled him there. Pascal who drove a fantastic race to get Sauber its first points this season was running seventh, but got demoted to eighth place after being reprimanded for failing to stay to the right side of the pit-entry bollard.  
Daniil Kyvat finished ninth followed by Haas driver Romain Grosjean in tenth place. Sauber's Marcus Ericsson finished just outside the points in 11th place followed by local double Champion Fernando Alonso in 12th place. 
With a fine start to the European rounds of the championship the current championship standings have Sebastian's lead cut down by six points. The German has a total of 104 points followed by Lewis in second place with a total of 98 points. Voltaire follows in third place with 63 points followed by Kimi in fourth with a total of 49 points. The Constructor's title has Ferrari leading with a total of 161 points followed by Mercedes in second with a total of 153 points and Red Bull Racing in third place with a total of 72 points. 
The next race will be in Monaco with the Grand Prix weekend spanning from May 26-28, 2017. After an exciting race at Spain on the less power-sensitive circuit, it is a street race ahead through the avenues of Monte Carlo with the slowest speeds of the season but the trickiest weather and track conditions. 


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