Nico Rosberg Beats Lewis Hamilton At Spanish GP

Nico Rosberg cruised to victory at the Spanish Grand Prix with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton taking second spot. The result means Rosberg has reduced Hamilton's advantage in the championship to 20 points, while Vettel is 31 points away in third place. Rosberg took advantage of his pole position into a lead at the first corner and simply cruised into the distance as Vettel held up Hamilton behind him. Mercedes had decided to give Hamilton some clear track, and told him that they would switch to a three-stop strategy and try to pass Vettel at the end of the race. But Hamilton did not need to overtake the Ferrari on track. Stopping on lap 32 to fit the slower 'hard' tyre, Hamilton immediately set the fastest lap of the race and proceeded to take huge chunks out of Vettel's advantage. Twenty seconds behind when he rejoined, Hamilton had cut Vettel's lead in half by the time the Ferrari driver made his second and final stop eight laps later. Vettel rejoined 13.5 seconds behind Hamilton, who continued to pull away until he was 23 seconds in front by the time of his final stop on lap 51, which was comfortably enough to allow him to rejoin in front of the Ferrari. Behind Vettel in the race, Bottas took fourth, fighting off a stern challenge from Ferrari's Raikkonen in the closing laps.

 
"Perfect weekend," said Rosberg. "The car has been awesome - all weekend."
Hamilton said: "I got a bad start, had lots of wheelspin but it was a good race. Nico did a fantastic job and I was just grateful I could get back up to second. This was a difficult weekend for me and I'll take this."

Result from the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday:

1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 1:41:12.555
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes +00:17.551
3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 00:45.342
4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Mercedes 00:59.217
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 01:00.002
6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes 01:21.314
7. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1 lap
8. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus - Mercedes 1 lap
9. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso - Renault 1 lap
10. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) RedBull - Renault 1 lap
11. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso - Renault 1 lap
12. Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber - Ferrari 1 lap
13. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
14. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber - Ferrari 1 lap
15. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
16. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 1 lap
17. Will Stevens (Britain) Marussia - Ferrari 3 laps
18. Roberto Merhi (Spain) Marussia - Ferrari 4 laps
r. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus - Mercedes 21 laps
r. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 40 laps
(rank: r = retired, nc = not classified)
Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton,1:28.270, lap 54.