F1 Spanish GP 2020: Lewis Hamilton Extends Championship Lead With Dominant Win, Max Verstappen Beats Valtteri Bottas to Claim Second Spot

Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton on Sunday clinched the Spanish Grand Prix for the fourth successive year to take a record 156th career podium finish and extend his championship lead to 37 points. Hamilton shrugged off Red Bull and tyre concerns to seal a dominant Spanish GP victory and extend his F1 championship lead. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished second at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya with Valtteri Bottas third for Mercedes and taking the fastest lap.

Mercedes had been fearful of the threat of Red Bull again in the Barcelona heat – but pole-sitter Hamilton was in control from start to finish despite Verstappen’s admirable efforts. Both Mercedes drivers suffered severe tyre wear on the softer compound rubber and in the heat and heavy loads of Silverstone last Sunday when they were soundly beaten by Verstappen.

DRIVER STANDINGS: ROUND 6 🏆@LewisHamilton takes a commanding lead as we head into a two-week break 👀

Next stop: Belgium#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/LIU64NCSrx

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 16, 2020

Talking about Spanish GP, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez crossed the line in fourth but dropped to fifth thanks to a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags, allowing Lance Stroll to claim fourth spot, as per a report on Formula One’s official website.

Perez slotted into fifth, ahead of the McLaren of Carlos Sainz – who maintained his spotless record of finishing in the points at his home race – and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, who benefitted from a late decision to switch him onto a one-stop strategy to come home in seventh, the report on formula1.com said.

He finished ahead of the second Red Bull of Alex Albon, the Thai driver hurt by having had to switch early to a set of hards, while the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly and the second McLaren of Lando Norris rounded out the top 10 – the expected strong race pace from Renault having failed to materialise on race day, as Daniel Ricciardo wound up 11th, with Esteban Ocon 13th.