Hamilton Edges Out Rosberg For Fourth Straight Win

The Spanish Grand Prix in Catalunya went as expected, with the Mercedes drivers finished first and second and either a Red Bull or Ferrari finishing in third. Lewis Hamilton continued to show his dominance of Formula 1 all weekend by achieving pole position and setting the fastest times in the practice sessions.



Hamilton's team mate, Nico Rosberg was never far behind Hamilton, however, almost taking pole position from him and finishing just six tenths of a second behind Hamilton in the race. Both Mercedes drivers lapped everyone on the grid apart from the top six drivers, which is unusual for a Formula 1 race and shows the true pace of the Mercedes car this season.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull finished in third place, gaining his first ever podium in Formula 1. He would have gotten his first podium in Australia if he wasn't disqualified from the race for his illegal fuel intake. Ricciardo's team mate and returning Formula 1 World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, finished in an unsurprising fourth place. Sebastian Vettel got used to winning the majority of the races for the past four years, winning the Drivers Championship all four of those years as well, but this year he has been let down by his unusually uncompetitive car. However, Vettel had a fantastic race in Spain since he started fifteenth on the grid due to gearbox problems in qualifying, and he made his way up to fourth place, a finish that even I can applaud.

The Ferraris both qualified and finished in sixth and seventh place, which stayed consistent with their usual finishes this season. Ferrari has promised their fans better finishes this season and if they want to do that, they will have to work a lot harder than they are right now, because sixth and seventh place finishes won't please anyone.

One of the big surprises both this race and this season has been the performance of McLaren. With a World Champion paired with a rookie, McLaren has had a tough season, struggling to reach the top ten in the past three races. There was a glimmer of hope in the first race of the season, with Kevin Magnussen, the rookie, finishing in second, and Jenson Button, the World Champion, finishing in third. McLaren say that if they don't see improvements before Silverstone, they could imploy a radical new race strategy as a desperate push for results.

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg continue to show the dominance of Mercedes this season, with their only real competition being each other, as they fight for the top spot on the Drivers Championship table. After Spain, Hamilton took the top spot by just three points, and was the first driver this year to break into three digits of points. However, Rosberg stays close behind Hamilton and it will be interesting to see how the season plays out as Rosberg continues to fight against his team mate's dominance.

Here are the race results and the current Drivers and Constructors Championship tables (courtesy of F1.com):

Race Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	66	1:41:05.155	1	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	66	+0.6 secs	2	18
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	66	+49.0 secs	3	15
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	66	+76.7 secs	15	12
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	66	+79.2 secs	4	10
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	66	+87.7 secs	7	8
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	6	6
8	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	65	+1 Lap	5	4
9	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	11	2
10	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	10	1
11	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	8
12	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	14
13	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	9
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	65	+1 Lap	12
15	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	65	+1 Lap	22
16	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	13
17	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	16
18	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	64	+2 Laps	18
19	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	64	+2 Laps	17
20	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	64	+2 Laps	19
Ret	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	34	Brakes	20
Ret	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	24	Exhaust	21

Drivers Championship:

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	100
2	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	97
3	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	49
4	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	45
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	39
6	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Force India-Mercedes	37
7	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Mercedes	34
8	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	23
9	Kevin Magnussen	Danish	McLaren-Mercedes	20
10	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Force India-Mercedes	20
11	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	17
12	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Williams-Mercedes	12
13	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	4
14	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Renault	4
15	Daniil Kvyat	Russian	STR-Renault	4
16	Adrian Sutil	German	Sauber-Ferrari	0
17	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
18	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Ferrari	0
19	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Caterham-Renault	0
20	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Lotus-Renault	0
21	Marcus Ericsson	Swedish	Caterham-Renault	0
22	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Ferrari	0

Constructors Championship:

Pos	Team	Points
1	Mercedes	197
2	Red Bull Racing-Renault	84
3	Ferrari	66
4	Force India-Mercedes	57
5	Williams-Mercedes	46
6	McLaren-Mercedes	43
7	STR-Renault	8
8	Lotus-Renault	4
9	Sauber-Ferrari	0
10	Marussia-Ferrari	0
11	Caterham-Renault	0