Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix for a third consecutive year after overtaking Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas at the first turn in Barcelona.
Although the Finnish driver began on pole position after going fastest in qualifying on Saturday, Hamilton sped past his championship rival just seconds into the fifth race of the season.
Up until the weekend, the Mercedes pair had shared two race wins apiece in Australia, Bahrain, China and, last time out, in Azerbaijan. However, despite Bottas starting from a more advantageous position on the grid, the five-time world champion shot past him almost immediately and never looked back.
Hamilton was full of praise for his employer as he celebrated his win in the immediate aftermath.
“I have to put it down to this incredible team,” the Englishman said. “This is history in the making, with five one-two finishes in a row. I’m so happy for every one of them.
He added: “She’s a great car but we don’t always get along – I’m glad in the race we could settle our difference. An interesting start, very, very close.”
Indeed, the result extended Mercedes’ perfect record in the 2019 season, with both Hamilton and Bottas taking the top two positions on the podium in all five races since this year’s action began in Melbourne.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who has endured a frustrating start to this year’s series, was left less than happy once again. After attempting to challenge the two Mercedes cars at the start, he found himself temporarily forced wide off the track, as per his fortunes in recent times.
He recovered from a less than ideal opening to finish fourth, though he damaged his tires in the process. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen clinched the final spot on the podium, and was voted as the F1 driver of the day.
Verstappen admitted his delight at making it onto the podium at all, saying: “The Mercedes is too quick.”
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Bottas, meanwhile, bemoaned what he described as a “pretty tight” start, while also hinting at issues with his own vehicle.
“There was some strange behavior on the clutch, I’ve never felt it before,” he said. “I lost it there.
“As a team it’s incredible, the fifth one-two in a run is really good. I got some points and that’s important, every point will count, but I have to find out what happened at the start.”
