It was a cloudy afternoon in Barcelona as the drivers took to the track for Formula One's fifth race of the season.
Mercedes owned the front row with Lewis Hamilton followed by teammate Valtteri Bottas. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen started third in fourth in their crimson Ferris. The Team Redbull with Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo lined up fifth and sixth. The top American entry had Kevin Magnussen and his Gene Haas Ferrari lining up at seventh.
At the start, Lewis Hamilton darted out to a solid lead while Sebastian Vettel settled into the slipstream behind the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. Heading into turn one, Vettel slipped alongside Bottas forcing the Mercedes to yield coming out of the second turn.
Formula One: The big wreck
Running in eighth and heading into turn four Romain Grosjean fishtailed wide and then spun back into traffic laying down an acrid smokescreen of burning rubber. Renault's Nico Hulkenberg and Torro Rosso's Pierre Gasly got collected in the wreck. The incident brought out the safety car before the midpoint of the first lap.
Restarting the field on lap four, Lewis Hamilton was out in front followed by Vettel and Bottas.
Since the front-runners had all qualified using soft compound tires they were obligated to use the same to start the race, but the cooler temperatures were better suited for a medium tire compound. Running third, Sebastian Vettel would be the first to make the switch when he pitted on lap 18. Exiting the pits, Vettel re-entered the race running seventh. On lap 20, Valtteri Bottas entered the pits and also made the switch to medium tires. As Bottas exits the pits, Vettel, powers his way up to the fifth position. Having left the track in second, Bottas rejoins the race running seventh. On lap 21 Bottas makes the pass on Kevin Magnussen putting the Mercedes in sixth just 34 seconds behind Vettel.
Heading into lap 25 Lewis Hamilton held the first spot with an 18 second lead over the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen with Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were running third and fourth. On lap 25 Raikkonen seemed to lose power and soon dropped from second down to seventh, he would soon head into the garage. On lap 26 Lewis Hamilton headed into the pits surrendering the lead to Max Verstappen. Hamilton exited the pit in second place.
Formula One: pit trouble for Force India
Running in the seventh position on lap 30 Force India's Esteban Ocon encountered trouble when his pit crew struggled to mount the right rear tire. The delay in the pits saw Ocon drop from seventh to 14th.
At the halfway point, Max Verstappen was out in front trying to hold off Lewis Hamilton, with Daniel Ricciardo running third.
Sebastian Vettel continued to run fourth with Valtteri Bottas in fifth. On lap 34 Daniel Ricciardo finally heads to the pits allowing Vettel and Bottas to advance. Ricciardo re-enters the race in the fifth spot. The following lap saw Verstappen surrender the lead as he too took on fresh tires. After the leader had all cycled through their pit stops it was once again Hamilton in the lead followed by Vettel and Bottas, with Verstappen and Ricciardo rounding out the top five.
The virtual safety car came out on lap 40 after Force India's Esteban Ocon suffered mechanical failure. Taking advantage of the slower pace, Team Ferrari chose to gamble and brought Sebastian Vettel into the pits. The move cost Vettel track position but would give him the advantage of fresh tires.
Restarting on lap 41 it was Hamilton out front followed by Bottas and Verstappen with Vettel and Ricciardo running fourth and fifth.
In the end, the Ferrari's gamble would not pay off for Sebastian Vettel and likely cost him a podium finish. Lewis Hamilton finished out front followed by his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas with Red Bull's Max Verstappen finishing third.