Nico Rosberg cruises to victory in the Spanish Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg is fighting back in the 2015 Grand Prix circus with an easy win in today’s Spanish Grand Prix, ahead of Hamilton’s Mercedes and Vettel’s Ferrari.

Nico Rosberg took pole for today’s Spanish Grand Prix, but on current form you’d have bet Hamilton would take the lead by the first corner. Not a bit of it.

In fact, by the first corner Lewis Hamilton found himself stuck behind the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel as Rosberg cruised off in to the distance. Mercedes tried to get Hamilton past the Ferrari of Vettel, but couldn’t, even with the help of DRS. So they had to change their plans.

Instead of the planned two-stop strategy, Mercedes switched Hamilton to a three-stop, and on his second set of tyres he made great progress on closing the gap the extra stop left him with, and after Vettel made his second stop – rejoining behind Hamilton – Hamilton continue to pull out a lead, allowing him to join in front of Vettel – but too far behind Rosberg to catch him – after his third and final stop, and secure second place and a Mercedes one-two.

Behind Vettel’s third place Ferrari, Bottas did well to take fourth with Raikkonen’s Ferrari pushing him hard in the closing laps, Masssa took sixth for the second Williams ahead of Ricciardo in the Red Bull and Grosjean in the Lotus, with Carlo Sainz Jr beating the Red Bull of Kvyat in his Toro Rosso for ninth spot.

As for the ongoing McLaren Honda fight to be relevant, Alonso managed to run in 12th for the first chunk of the race, even managed to get up in to a points place at one point (but only really because of a late first pit stop) but ended up retiring with brake failure. Jenson Button plodded round and finished 16th, with just the two Manor cars running behind him.

Maybe things will improve at Monaco in two weeks time?