Hamilton Takes Championship Lead in Spain
Formula One returned to Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix bringing these new 2014 cars to the continent for the first time. Through practice and qualifying it was again clear the Mercedes cars have retained their advantage that has been seen since the beginning of the season. With Hamilton on pole with his teammate right along side, could anyone challenge the Silver Arrows? Hamilton Takes Championship Lead in Spain.
Four times world champion Sebastian Vettel may have started in 15th, but Daniel Ricciardo proved that the 2014 Red Bull has pace and so the Germans recovery to finished fourth was unsurprising. Ricciardo finished third. From the word go, Lewis Hamilton built up a huge lead from the rest of the pack, it was very much his race to lose. Williams again looked strong with Bottas holding third before yielding to the charging Red Bulls and settling for fifth. The teammate rivalry of Alonso and Raikkonen finally kicked off after some disappointing results from the past few races for the Finn. Ferrari, much like Mercedes last race, allowed their star drivers to battle it out. This was very much a struggle to see who would become the teams number one. After a good fight it was Alonso who won out with a thrilling overtake. Meanwhile, Rosberg was chasing down Hamilton and as the last laps ticked by, he was only getting closer. The Brit took victory, but given a few more laps, it might have been a different outcome. McLaren were again unimpressive…
This result sees Hamilton leapfrog Rosberg in the championship standings of which he now leads.
1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Nico Rosberg
3. Daniel Ricciardo
4. Sebastian Vettel
5. Valtteri Bottas
6. Fernando Alonso
7. Kimi Raikkonen
8. Romain Grosjean
9. Sergio Perez
10. Nico Hulkenberg
11. Jenson Button
12. Kevin Magnussen
13. Felipe Massa
14. Daniil Kvyat
15. Pastor Maldonado
16. Esteban Gutierrez
17. Adrian Sutil
18. Jules Bianchi
19. Max Chilton
20. Marcus Ericsson
DNF Kamui Kobayashi
DNF Jean-Eric Vergne