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Commentary

F1 Spanish GP Live Commentary and Updates - Race

Live commentary and updates from the F1 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

By: Jake Boxall-Legge, Haydn Cobb, Tom Howard

Summary

  • Chequered flag: Hamilton wins the Spanish Grand Prix from Verstappen and Bottas. Verstappen gets the fastest lap. 
  • Hamilton catches and then passes Verstappen for the lead at Turn 1 on lap 60/66
  • Hamilton goes for a second stop on lap 42/66 for mediums in a bid to hunt down Verstappen
  • Verstappen leads Hamilton after the first round of pit stops. Hamilton stopped five laps after the Red Bull
  • Slow first pit stop for Verstappen on lap 25/66
  • Safety Car deployed on lap 8/66. Tsunoda stopped on track at Turn 10
  • Verstappen takes the lead from Hamilton at Turn 1 on the opening lap
  • Hamilton starts on pole, the 100th of his F1 career, from Verstappen and Bottas
Leaderboard
  1. Hamilton, Mercedes
  2. Verstappen, Red Bull
  3. Bottas, Mercedes
  4. Leclerc, Ferrari 
  5. Perez, Red Bull
  6. Ricciardo, McLaren
  7. Sainz, Ferrari 
  8. Norris, McLaren
  9. Ocon, Alpine
  10. Gasly, AlphaTauri
Status: Stopped
So, that's us for another week! Hope you enjoyed that race, and have a lovely rest of the day. Later, gators.

And here's the full report, if you missed anything from that race:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/spanish-gp-hamilton-outfoxes-verstappen-to-win-/6505692/

"In a way I could see it coming," Verstappen says. "When they went for another stop I knew it was over."
That was alright for a Barcelona race, wasn't it?

Full credit to Gasly for that late race attack, having gone from 16th to 10th on his final stint, but he just missed out on overtaking Ocon for ninth at the line.

Norris gets eighth, as Ocon just holds off Gasly at the line to keep ninth.
But with Mercedes taking the initiative, that's a win for Lewis Hamilton at Barcelona!
Bottas had a tilt at trying to recover the fastest lap, but fell some way short of that.

During that scuffle and further up the road Norris has moved ahead of Ocon at Turn 1 to take eighth place.

But not for long as Gasly pulls off the same overtake on Stroll to take 10th place. It was a late defensive move by Stroll who is shown the black and white flag, as Norris was for a similar move earlier in the race.

The Alonso vs Stroll incident has been place under investigation. A lap later Stroll lines up the same move at the same place and makes it stick to take 10th place.

But that's a 1m18.149s for Verstappen there, so the extra point may be his.

Russell’s drop has triggered a right battle royale for P10. Alonso defends strongly from Stroll at Turn 1 which sends the Aston Martin driver over the kerbs at Turn 2.

Perez now has the fastest lap, a 1m19.483s.
Verstappen now pits for fresh tyres, conceding defeat and going after the fastest lap point - currently held by Bottas.

Russell, who had been right on the cusp of points behind Alonso, has lost a huge chunk of time and places and dropped to P15.

A stunning bit of strategy from Mercedes to make that work - Verstappen tried to bob left and right on the straight to break the tow, but it's ultimately futile.
Hamilton has DRS on Verstappen now, and this surely must be it! Hamilton shadows Verstappen through the corner, steams past the Red Bull and claims the lead!
The gap is 0.5s between Hamilton and Verstappen now.
"I might not have any tyres left at the end of this," Hamilton says. "Don't worry, Verstappen will have less," says Bono. Red Bull pit a car, but it's Perez.
Hamilton now brings the gap down to three seconds. He'll be on Verstappen's tail very shortly.

Norris, on the soft tyres, is making quick work back up into the points places. He gets by Russell and Alonso both at Turn 1 in successive laps to move up to ninth.

10 laps to go in the Spanish Grand Prix!
Hamilton's just taken almost four seconds out of Verstappen on the last two laps. He's now 6.6s behind.

Sainz is in a bullish mood late in this race, as he gets by Ocon into Turn 1 to take seventh place. Both Alpine drivers are yet to stop for a second time and their pace is around 3s per lap slower than those that have stopped again.

Bottas pits for fresh softs, which makes his impasse antics even more pointless.

Norris pits a lap later after his near-miss with Sainz and drops down to P11 behind Russell.

"Don't hold Lewis up," Bottas is told. He's not a phenomenal job of letting him through here, which has cost Hamilton time here.

Norris has been shown the black and white flag after that overtake by Sainz. It was a late defensive move by Norris which was a close call, so probably a warning is fair. On we go.

Norris, having waved his McLaren team-mate Ricciardo through being on the fresh soft tyres, is powerless to stop ex-team-mate Sainz sweeping around the outside at Turn 1 to take P8.

We've got 15 laps remaining, and Hamilton's 12s behind Verstappen.

Gasly the next to make a second pitstop, taking on fresh softs, but suffers a slow stop with a sticky rear right. Not been a great afternoon for AlphaTauri it must be said. Gasly back out in P16 with 16 laps to change that.

"Pick up the pace," Bottas is told. He can capitalise if Verstappen runs out of tyre life.
"I don't see how we're gonna make it to the end," Verstappen laments. Is this Red Bull's "Bono my tyres are dead"?

Ricciardo, having just lost a place to Perez, pits at the same time as Sainz directly behind him. Ricciardo maintains his position with two evenly-matched stops, so it is as you were.

Perez finally gets past Ricciardo, hanging his Red Bull around the outside of Turn 1 and taking the inside for the next corner. Lovely move, and he's up to fifth.
So, that stop's set the cat among the pigeons hasn't it? Red Bull can't pit now, else they lose the lead, so Verstappen has to stick it out.
"At this rate, he'll catch us on the last lap," Verstappen is told by Gianpiero Lambiase. Hamilton's taking out a bit more than a second per lap on Verstappen.
"How much do I have to catch up?" Hamilton asks. "22 seconds - but don't worry, we've done it before", says Bono.
"It could be Hungary 2019," Verstappen is told. There, Hamilton took another stop, caught Red Bull unaware and hunted down Verstappen to win.

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