Spain – Race: Lewis Hamilton fends off Nico Rosberg, Vettel makes a strong comeback

For the start of the race, this morning’s rain is largely forgotten, even if the sun is not shining as much as yesterday or Friday. The air temperature is “only” 24°C and the track temperature is 37°C, significantly more than at the beginning of the morning.

During his formation lap, Sebastian Vettel complains that his front left tire is locking up and that something might be broken on his car. The misfortune continues to plague him after his penalty yesterday, following a gearbox change. However, he will have no problem starting the race.

At the start, the two Mercedes take off perfectly, with Lewis Hamilton managing to maintain the advantage of his pole position against his teammate Nico Rosberg. As for Romain Grosjean, he manages to hold onto his 5th place while Kevin Magnussen clips Sebastian Vettel’s rear tire, without any impact on both drivers. In the battle between the Ferrari drivers, it’s Kimi Räikkönen who gets the better of Fernando Alonso while Felipe Massa has dropped to eighth place. Lewis Hamilton then begins an impressive series of laps to immediately widen the gap on the pack.

In the fourth lap, he already has a two-second lead over his teammate and seven seconds over Valtteri Bottas! The Finn is under pressure from Daniel Ricciardo, who is looking to recover the position lost at the start. But the battle is cut short as by the sixth lap, the Australian is instructed to keep at least two seconds behind the Williams driver to avoid damaging his tires… However, this doesn’t stop him from attempting an overtake at the end of the next lap!

On the tenth lap, the top 10 standings remain identical to what they were on the first lap: Hamilton, Rosberg, Bottas, Ricciardo, Grosjean, Räikkönen, Alonso, Massa, Hülkenberg, and Perez. Behind them, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel manage to overtake Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber. The following lap, a five-second stop & go penalty is imposed on Pastor Maldonado for causing a collision with Marcus Ericsson in the first lap while the Lotus driver had climbed up to 18th.

On the 13th lap, Sebastian Vettel is the first to pit since he couldn’t overtake Jenson Button for twelfth place. He attempts the famous undercut. Meanwhile, his teammate is still in Valtteri Bottas’s gearbox. He tries the same strategy as Vettel by stopping at the end of the following lap. With his new tires, the Australian feels invigorated and successively overtakes Jenson Button, Daniil Kvyat, and Sergio Pérez.

This triggers the wave of tire changes. Lewis Hamilton is the first of the Mercedes drivers to stop, while his lead was just over a second. Nico Rosberg continues his momentum and sets the fastest lap of the race. Nonetheless, his teammate immediately responds and reclaims the fastest time. The order between the two Mercedes drivers remains the same after the German’s stop at the end of the 21st lap.

On the other hand, the strategy worked for Red Bull as Daniel Ricciardo moved well ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel easily overtook Jenson Button. At the same time, the two Sahara Force India drivers have been inseparable since the start, just like the two Ferrari drivers.

On the 22nd lap, the standings are Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Bottas, Grosjean, Räikkönen, Alonso, Massa, Vettel, and Hülkenberg. Kimi Räikkönen has closed in on his former teammate and is putting significant pressure on him, passing him on the 24th lap while Jean-Eric Vergne is asked to retire to his pit. Fernando Alonso imitates Kimi Räikkönen to gain an advantage over the Frenchman from Lotus.

As the two Mercedes drivers did not continue with the same strategy, Nico Rosberg, who opted for hard tires, is informed that his three-second gap to Lewis Hamilton, who stayed on medium tires, is appropriate and that he will be able to attack ten laps later if he takes good care of his tires. The directive is followed to the letter as the German sets the fastest lap in the 33rd lap, allowing him to close up to four seconds.

Halfway through the race, the standings are Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Bottas, Räikkönen, Alonso, Grosjean, Vettel, Hülkenberg, and Perez. Massa has dropped to 14th place. Sebastian Vettel chooses this moment to initiate the second wave of pit stops.

This pit stop is successful for the German as he sets the fastest lap in the race immediately afterward. Guillaume Rocquelin, his race engineer, then gave him free rein to push during his entire stint. The four-time champion follows through to the letter and swiftly passes Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen! The Danish driver appears to be struggling significantly with his tires as the Brazilian Williams driver overtakes him on the pit straight. As for Kamui Kobayashi, he has to retire due to a brake problem.

Lewis Hamilton stops at the end of the 42nd lap while the gap with Nico Rosberg was stabilized at four seconds. His pit stop is not the fastest in history as it lasted 4.3 seconds, but Nico Rosberg complains of losing time due to graining. He logically re-emerges behind his teammate after stopping two laps later.

However, Lewis Hamilton seems agitated on the radio and complains about having to pit too early. Exchanges with his engineer multiply, but the pit wall reassures him that he is still on the optimal strategy. The gap remains stable despite the fact that the Brit is now on hard tires and the German on mediums. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso is having a superb and solid race, placing 4th. But it’s especially Sebastian Vettel who is making a remarkable comeback, now in 5th place, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen.

On the 50th lap, the standings are Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Alonso, Vettel, Bottas, Räikkönen, Grosjean, Hülkenberg, and Perez, but the gap between the two Mercedes has shrunk to two seconds. Sebastian Vettel makes his third stop on the 52nd lap, allowing him to pass Fernando Alonso when he makes his own stop on the following lap. The German is on fire as he sets the fastest lap in the race once again. His grid placement issues are now a distant memory… He’s rapidly closing the gap on Kimi Räikkönen while the gap between the leading men stabilizes around two seconds.

With ten laps to go, Sebastian Vettel finds an opening on Kimi Räikkönen after coming out of the pits 5.7 seconds behind him just three laps earlier! Lewis Hamilton complains of graining, which shows on the stopwatch: the gap narrows to 1.7 seconds with Nico Rosberg. Guillaume Rocquelin is forced to calm his driver to prevent him from catching up with Valtteri Bottas too quickly.

With six laps to go, Nico Rosberg enters the DRS zone, only 0.9 seconds behind, but the Briton manages to find enough space to push his teammate out of the danger zone. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso has closed to three-tenths behind Kimi Räikkönen, which excites the crowd! Similarly, Sebastian Vettel is putting significant pressure on Valtteri Bottas for the gain of 4th place.

Fernando Alonso finds the opening with three laps to go, just like Sebastian Vettel one lap later. Meanwhile, Kimi Räikkönen gets lapped by the two Mercedes, which have never been so close: a 0.5-second gap! But that’s not enough for the German, who has to concede once again to his teammate. He thus loses the lead in the championship.