Spanish GP - Hamiltons outplays Max after a late charge

Lewis Hamilton pulled off a brilliant fightback win against Max Verstappen in the Spanish GP after overtaking his Red Bull rival in the closing laps at Barcelona to extend his world title lead.

Lewis Hamilton

Verstappen led the majority of the race after brilliantly snatching the lead from Hamilton into Turn 1 at the start, with Red Bull then committing to a one-stop strategy around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as Hamilton opted for two.

But with six laps to go, Hamilton used the superior performance of his newer tires to pass the Dutchman into Turn 1 and check out for his 98th victory, and fifth straight win at the circuit – Verstappen ultimately deciding to pit for softs once Hamilton was past and go for a consolation fastest lap, which he duly got. With Hamilton and Verstappen having been in a class of their own in Spain, Bottas came home a distant third after his own race-long battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who overcame Ferrari’s 2021 race pace woes to take an excellent fourth, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez put in a solid recovery drive from P8 on the grid to take fifth.

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo drove arguably his strongest race of the year to take sixth, ahead of home hero Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari. Lando Norris in the second McLaren had an off-key afternoon but still managed P8 – the first time he’s finished outside of the top five this season – with Alpine's Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly round out the final points-paying positions.

But after his 100th pole position on Saturday, it was Hamilton who once again demonstrated his class in Catalunya to deny Verstappen once again, and moves 14 points clear at the top of the drivers' standings.

STANDINGS:-

2021 F1 SPANISH GRAND PRIX - RACE RESULTS
POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	66 Laps
2	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	+15.841s
3	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	+26.610s
4	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	+54.616s
5	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	+63.671s
6	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	+73.768s
7	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	+74.670s
8	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	+ 1 laps
9	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	+ 1 laps
10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	+ 1 laps
11	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	+ 1 laps
12	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	+ 1 laps
13	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	+ 1 laps
14	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	+ 1 laps
15	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	+ 1 laps
16	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	+ 1 laps
17	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	+ 1 laps
18	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	+ 2 laps
19	Nikita Mazepin	RUS	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	+ 2 laps
DNF	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	8 Laps

-by Amaan Attar

Source- Crash.net