After carrying the momentum gained from his 2014 title success into the new season, Lewis Hamilton had built a 27 point lead in the drivers’ standings going into round five. Without a win to his name, teammate and chief rival Nico Rosberg needed to execute the perfect weekend in Spain. He duly delivered, cruising to his first win of the 2015 campaign while Hamilton’s race was mired by traffic early on.
Rosberg stated his intentions on Saturday afternoon, taking pole position by nearly three tenths of a second ahead of Hamilton. A comfortable margin, compared with the precedent set by the Mercedes duo. The headline from qualifying, however, was the surprise third row lockout by Toro Rosso’s young chargers Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen. It was a pair of laps which confirmed the strength of the James Key designed chassis, on a circuit which is aerodynamically demanding.
Unfortunately for everyone associated with Faenza, the team fell off the radar during the race. Similarly, Rosberg saw Hamilton disappear from his radar, as the Briton suffered wheel-spin off the line, falling to third. As Rosberg began to build a gap at the front, Hamilton was bottled up behind Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari.
Vettel’s straight line speed nullified Hamilton’s DRS supported attack, highlighting the steps Ferrari had made over the winter to address their 2014 power deficit to Mercedes. Elsewhere in the lap, Hamilton suffered heavily in the turbulent air, as the W06 often did when faced with traffic throughout the season.
A botched first stop by a usually faultless Mercedes crew meant that Hamilton’s first attempt to jump the Ferrari in the pits failed. When attempt number two delivered chance number two, a string of fastest laps from the reigning champion saw him clear the Ferrari by lap 32. By this point though, Rosberg had built an insurmountable lead.
Elsewhere, Lotus’ day was compromised by a collision between drivers’ Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean at the challenging turn three. Maldonado’s attempted overtake around the outside prompted light contact with his teammate’s front tyre. It was enough to break the rear wing end-fence on Maldonado’s car. Damage that eventually forced the Venezuelan into retirement.
The drama for Lotus did not end there. Grosjean’s second pit-stop was decidedly eventful as the Frenchman overshot his box, clattering into his front jack man. Fortunately, none of the Lotus squad were injured. McLaren’s front jack man demonstrated the full extent of his reactions as Fernando Alonso arrived in his pit box out of control, following a brake failure. The home hero’s 14th Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona ended prematurely due to the ERS induced fault.
Ending his day on a high was Nico Rosberg. His first 25 point haul of 2015 was sealed comfortably, with the German taking a 17 second advantage over Hamilton to the flag. His win reduced the deficit to his teammate to 20 points. An important victory, albeit one which failed to halt the Hamilton-juggernaut in the final assessment.
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