00:00When they started side by side, it's lights out and away we go Hamilton does get a very good start, Bottas behind it and then comes Max Verstappen and Verstappen already gaining on Bottas as Lance Stroll pulls to the inside as well, Hamilton's going to make the first corner ahead, Stroll on the inside and Bottas squeezes Bottas almost down itself and running into the back of the Mercedes and Bottas might now lose out to Sergio Perez as Real Turn 3 we go.
00:25This is looking better for Valtteri Bottas as he tries to get past Lance Stroll and now finally he's got wheel to wheel and finally at the start of lap 5 he's gone ahead of Lance Stroll doing a magnificent job to keep Bottas away but eventually, eventually Bottas was just maybe recovered from beside the track or something but it looked like it was better, yeah so Bottas just did not get a particularly good or disastrously bad launch, but there is the sort of slipstream effect everybody's looking for.
00:55He's enjoying behind him and he's getting mugged left, right, centre isn't he? Absolutely, and he just finds himself in a place where he doesn't want to be, he's swapped by other cars as well, on board now with Bottas, saw his race start there, more to 200km an hour and he was, he was a couple of hundreds, wasn't he, a couple of tenths I should say, slower than Hamilton and suddenly into the braking zone, Stroll's arrived and he has to get out of the way.
01:23If you, if you pitted Max Verstappen now he might find himself behind the racing points.
01:29I think they want to see how Albon goes on those tyres before pitting him.
01:33Here comes Esteban Ocon and he was almost onto the grass, he's definitely going down the inside of Kimi Raikkonen in the Renault and there's a move that's been building now for a few laps, Ocon's going past and Albon will now be trying on freshen tyres to go on the inside at Turn 3 and up towards Turn 4, Kimi Raikkonen on the left-hand side of the track has to yield to Alex Albon who took his opportunity.
01:56There's about 11 seconds between Hamilton and Bottas which is an eternity for a crew like Mercedes.
02:02There you are, the shiny new tyres, new sets of medium tyres for Lewis Hamilton.
02:09Yeah, and as always you attack the pit in because it's all part of the elapsed time in the race.
02:19We saw Lewis, oh very slow left rear there for Lewis but 4.3, I think they'll get away with that.
02:27As Verstappen hasn't been near the long for the last corner here.
02:32They are double stacking down and Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas 1.2 seconds quicker at his pit stop than Lewis Hamilton which...
02:40Where's Verstappen going to be? He's going to be ahead of Bottas.
02:42He is going to be ahead of Bottas.
02:44So Mercedes, did they react a little bit too late to Max Verstappen with Valtteri Bottas?
02:51He don't though get out ahead of Lance Strong.
02:54Yeah, because Bottas would have had to just hang back a little bit.
02:57It's a risky move because if you have a nightmare of the pit stop on the first part...
03:02He was still over three seconds which, you know, in terms of a Formula 1 pit stop is not going to be top 10 this afternoon.
03:14So he's got a run like a pound of McLaren in front and there goes Alex Albon around the outside at turn 1 of Esteban Ocon who hasn't put it yet
03:22and has now made way for Albon to move up into a place.
03:26Pierre Gasly is next on the road to overtake all this particular circuit.
03:31Although if you're Alex Albon he can eventually do it.
03:33Yeah, it's quite a long way back.
03:35A late move across the road there.
03:38Alex guessed that well.
03:41It's not too late, mate.
03:42I'm a half the dog's moves to try and get past the McLaren.
03:45This is a perfect racer, it really is.
03:48It's now around the outside at turn 4, Lando Norris trying to get past Esteban Ocon go room on the inside at turn 5.
03:54Around the outside, McLaren's going to go for it once again.
03:57Norris really struggling for traction and Lando Norris still ahead.
04:02Oh, child of Claren.
04:04Oh, this is absolutely brilliant.
04:05Kiwiat's about to join the party.
04:07And which way's the Claren going to go?
04:09He looks left, he looks right, he goes left again.
04:11And over the rubble strips of the DRS comes to Lando Norris' aid.
04:17Yeah, McLaren there.
04:19He tried a little bit too hard on that one.
04:22And goes off the track as it was.
04:24But Lando Norris has now got some clean air in front of him just to help him out a bit.
04:29As you might accept, Martin Daniel Fiat has come to join the party here.
04:33So for all the Claren's moves and trying to get past the McLaren,
04:37he's been held up enough for now the Alfa Tauri to be a bit of a threat to him.
04:40Yeah, he kind of wasted it a little bit at Turn 9.
04:43He got a little bit too clever there.
04:45There's not going to be any space out there in terms of overtaking.
04:52Do you know what?
04:53It's great to see drivers having a go.
04:57We know it's difficult here in Spain.
04:58We know it's hard to overtake.
05:00We've got to have a go.
05:01And it is.
05:02And these kids have all come through F3 and F2 with adult tyres on since lap 28, I believe it was.
05:09And here comes Lance Stroll with DRS down the main straight.
05:12Pulls over at the last minute.
05:14Gets the maximum benefit of that slipstream.
05:16And Lance Stroll goes back into the top five once again.
05:19And Racing Point on for their straight interviews.
05:22I think they're going to find one happy driver and two unhappy drivers.
05:25Yeah, well, the one happy driver, obviously, is the one that's looking like he's going to win this race ahead.
05:32We should still say what a great strategy it's been, Sergio Perez, to produce the pace that he's producing now on a one-stop strategy.
05:40Yeah, it's almost a...
05:41For the cars behind him, they can't, now, they believe, get second place in this race.
05:48So what they're going to do is, I think, what they should have put on before, a brand new, new set of medium tyres,
05:55and send him off to see if he can get the fastest lap in this race.
05:59Because the socks just didn't work at all.
06:00You're right, and he's sure, didn't he, that in that fastest lap that he did there, that they had pace in the car.
06:05And I think you're right, on the new medium.
06:08I've got my team-mate at the moment, and I fancy a point today, and it's Landon Norris in the final points place as we start the final lap of this race.
06:17And they're all catching up to a spectacular thing out there, the soft, warm sanitised, he'll throw Matt Grosjean to seven and eight.
06:24Oh, he hit the curve, didn't he hit that sausage curve? It certainly looked that way.
06:29Somehow managed to hold the ass.
06:33Well done, Matt Grosjean. Good reactions from him.
06:36Matt Grosjean is flying at the moment to try that fastest lap.
06:40Meanwhile, there's all sorts of goings-on behind.
06:44Bethel, over the line ahead of Albarn and Gasly and Norris and Ricciardo.
06:49They're trying to keep racing to try and sort all that out.
06:52Valtteri Bottas comes home to take the fastest lap on the final lap.
06:56It's a snap here, you know, he's, what if he's just counting down the days to win.
07:01Lewis will retire from Formula One now.
07:04Mercedes leave it for, I don't know, he's, what has he got to do to consistently take the top step?
07:11We're at 23, he's got time to wait.
07:13Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton had time to take in the scenery.
07:17Tonight, this was a relative stroll to another victory.
07:20He extends his championship lead.
07:23Hamilton, the defending champion after the first six rounds of this Formula One season.
07:28Looking very handily placed to go on and take crown number seven by the time we get to Abu Dhabi.
