Lewis Hamilton executed a two-stop strategy to snatch a dramatic victory in the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Hamilton lost the lead at the opening corner to Verstappen and struggled to get close to the Dutchman across his first two stints, until he made a second stop on lap 43.
Once released back onto the track, Hamilton unleashed ferocious pace to reel in a 22 second deficit and overtook Verstappen on lap 60, before sprinting away to his sixth Spanish GP victory around Circuit de Catalunya.
Verstappen had to settle for second and the fastest lap ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly who completed the top ten.
Hamilton now holds a 14 point lead over Verstappen in the drivers’ standings as Bottas moved above Norris into third as Leclerc continues to sit fifth.
Mercedes extended their lead in the Constructor battle against Red Bull from 18 points to 29 points, as McLaren sit third ahead of Ferrari by just five points.
Hamilton made a good start from pole but Verstappen had enough grip into Turn One to make a late braking move on the inside to squeeze Hamilton and take the lead.
Verstappen soon built a comfortable gap around 1.5s as he fended off Hamilton through the early laps until the Safety Car was deployed on lap eight, in order to allow marshals to recover Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri which had stopped at Turn 10 with a power unit issue.
Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi endured a terrible first pit stop under the Safety Car after his front-left medium was found to have a puncture just as it was fitted onto his car, triggering a full set change as a caution.
Giovinazzi eventually recovered to finish 15th and one lap down despite the puncture costing him vital track time.
Once racing resumed on lap 11, Hamilton swiftly reeled Verstappen in but couldn’t force his way through until Verstappen pitted on lap 25, but Hamilton opted to stay out for three laps despite having a 80% chance of retaining the lead if he had pitted on lap 26.
When Hamilton re-joined from his first stop on lap 29, he reduced his 5.6s gap to Verstappen down to one second by lap 34, yet was again unable to get past his title rival until he made a late second stop on lap 43 which put him 22s behind with 23 laps left.
Verstappen however was struggling on his mediums despite trying to look after the tyre degradation, as Hamilton rapidly tore into Verstappen’s lead to get the gap down to under 5s by lap 57.
Hamilton though did have to fight his way past Bottas on inside of Turn 10 on lap 52 after the Finnish driver ignored team orders to not impede Hamilton, yet Verstappen failed to gain any time whilst both Mercedes cars battled each other.
Verstappen’s one-stop gamble eventually failed to pay off as Hamilton caught and passed the Red Bull on lap 60 with an outside move into Turn One and swept away to victory.
Red Bull consequently pitted Verstappen for softs a lap later and the Dutchman was rewarded with fastest lap of 1m 18.149 on lap 62, handing him a potentially crucial point and ensured his title deficit to Hamilton was only 14 points instead of 15 points.
Further back, Perez spent most of the race scrapping with Ricciardo over fifth before eventually winning out with an outside move into the first corner on lap 46.
Gasly suffered an early five second time penalty for not stopping in his grid box correctly, yet was able to recover to tenth with a late inside move on Lance Stroll into Turn One on lap 63 after a mammoth five car scrap for the final point.
F1 now heads to Monaco in two weeks time with FP1 and FP2 taking place on Thursday 20 May, ahead of FP3 and Qualifying on Saturday as usual followed by the race on Sunday.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 66 | 1h 33m .07.680 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 66 | + 15.841 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 66 | + 26.610 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 66 | + 54.616 |
| 5 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 66 | + 63.671 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 66 | + 73.768 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 66 | + 74.670 |
| 8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 12 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 14 | George Russell | Williams | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 17 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 65 | + 1 Lap |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 65 | + 2 Laps |
| 19 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 65 | + 2 Laps |
| RET | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 6 | Power |
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