Hamilton leapfrogs Rosberg in standings with Spanish GP victory
Lewis Hamilton jumped to the top of the World Championship standings for the first time this season as he cruised to a fourth successive victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Briton qualified on poll at Circuit de Catalunya and executed another racing masterclass, never allowing his lead to slip as he finished a narrow 0.6 seconds ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso said prior to the race that the Mercedes pair could easily end up winning all 19 races this season and his prediction did not look wide of the mark in Spain.
Mercedes' dominance is also evident in the fact that Hamilton has just over double the points Alonso has in third in the overall standings.
it was not all plain sailing for Hamilton as from lap 47, Rosberg started to eat into the Brit's lead, chopping off 2.6secs in the space of just six laps, cutting the deficit to two seconds.
As they picked through the backmarkers, Rosberg made further gains and by the end of lap 59 the gap was under one second for the first time in the race.
It was then a case of a tenth of a second here and there, but Rosberg never once managed to get close enough to even attempt a pass.
The relief was obvious from Hamilton come the flag, whilst Rosberg's face was one of thunder at times.
On the podium, a clearly relieved Hamilton said: "A big thank you to my team, my first win here in Spain, and it means everything to me.
"Overall, I wasn't fast enough, Nico was quicker, so I had to rely on my engineers a lot more to help me with my settings. Fortunately I was able to keep him behind me."
As for Rosberg, he felt he would have had a shot at Hamilton if there had been one more lap.
Describing himself as "a bit gutted" at losing his championship lead, Rosberg added: "There are still plenty more races to go."
The fact that Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo finished a further 46 seconds behind Rosberg and managed to get on the podium in third seemed to illustrate how dominant the Mercedes pair had been.
The Australian's team-mate Sebastian Vettel arguably produced the most stunning race, moving up 11 places to finish an incredible fourth
Ferrari, winners here last with Fernando Alonso, had to settle for sixth and seventh, with Kimi Raikkonen passed by the Spaniard just over two laps from home.
Romain Grosjean hauled Lotus into the points for the first time in a problematic season, with Force India duo Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg ninth and 10th.
That left McLaren out of the points for the third successive race, with Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen 11th and 12th, whilst Max Chilton was 19th in his Marussia.