Hamilton hunts down Verstappen for F1 Spanish GP win
The race brought back memories of the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix as Hamilton switched onto a two-stop strategy before hunting down and passing Verstappen late on to take his third win of the 2021 season.
Verstappen had muscled his way into the lead at Turn 1 after making a brilliant start, but some quick-thinking from Mercedes caught Red Bull napping as Hamilton jumped into the pits for a second time on Lap 42.
Hamilton had 24 seconds to find in order to catch Verstappen on tyres nearly 20 laps younger, but just as he did in Hungary two years ago, the seven-time world champion charged to victory, sweeping around the outside of Verstappen at the first corner with six laps to go.
It marks Hamilton’s fifth successive Spanish Grand Prix victory and the 98th of his F1 career, giving him a 14-point lead over Verstappen in the championship.
Having lost the lead, Verstappen pitted again late on to claim the fastest lap bonus point as he finished almost 16s behind Hamilton at the flag, with Valtteri Bottas completing the podium in third for Mercedes.
Behind the front-runners, Charles Leclerc continued his fine start to the season for Ferrari by taking a brilliant fourth, heading the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who fought his way to fifth following a disappointing qualifying.
Daniel Ricciardo was a strong fifth for McLaren as he fended off the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, who was the last driver to finish on the lead lap.
Lando Norris ensured both McLaren cars scored points for the fourth successive race as he finished a distant eighth, while Alpine's Esteban Ocon pipped AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly for ninth in a drag race to the line as they completed the points-scoring positions.
Click here for full Spanish Grand Prix results.
