The Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton dominated the race from start to finish. Valtteri Bottas completed the one-two for the German team and Verstappen got his first podium of the season. A bad strategy in Ferrari made Sebastian Vettel’s options for a podium disappear.
At the start, Sebastian Vettel got P2 by using the tow of Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes. Behind, Carlos Sainz gained positions and Fernando Alonso lost some. At turn 3, Romain Grosjean lost control of his Haas, leaving a big white cloud of smoke which complicated the visibility in that zone. Because of this, Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg crashed against the Haas, and both of them had to retire.
At the restart with the safety car, Alonso returned to the points zone after overtaking Esteban Ocon. At the same time, Hamilton was doing fastest laps. Vettel could do little, so at lap 18 tried to do an undercut. A Mercedes engineer was interested in Vettel’s tire condition after the stop.
2 laps later, Bottas stopped and almost overtook Sebastian. Magnussen was between the Ferrari and the Mercedes but it only took 1 lap for the Finish driver to overtake him.
On lap 25, Kimi Räikkönen reported he had no power in his Ferrari, he could arrive to the box, but only to retire from the race. At the same moment, the leader Lewis Hamilton pitted and joined the track between the two Red Bulls. Max Verstappen was the leader.
Behind, Alonso overtook Brendo Hartley, while Carlos Sainz had a good fight with Marcus Ericsson, being side-to-side at the end of the straight line. This situation allowed Leclerc and Alonso to get closer to the Spaniard.
Lewis was leading the race thanks to the Red Bulls that stopped on laps 34 and 35. Vettel was second. Ocon had problems with his Force India, forcing a virtual safety car. Vettel took advantage of the situation to switch tires.
At the restart, Alonso overtook Leclerc for P8. Max hit the back of Sirotkin‘s car. The Red Bull driver had minimal damage in his car and continued with a good pace. The other drifted at the back straight and almost had to retire.
With 20 laps left until the end, Vandoorne retired without causing a yellow flag due to the zone in which he was. At that same moment Ricciardo set the fastest lap.
Vettel’s strategy failed and he could not regain positions. Finally, Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line and he got his third victory in Barcelona. Bottas was second and Verstappen was third, responding to the criticisms he’d got in the last few races.