Having led all the sessions since the beginning of the spanish race weekend, and locking the front row of the grid, the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas were the ultra favourites for a win at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a circuit being one both teams and drivers know particularly well, thanks to doing winter testing there. But none of them had ever experienced a race at Montmelo in the scorching heat of a spanish summer. The two previous races held at the Silverstone track having underlined the sensitivity of the W11 to hotter temperatures, that sensitivity, along with the tyres factor, were expected to come to play. Particularly to the benefit of the last race winner Max Verstappen. 

In the end, Mercedes got the upper hand regarding the tyres management. The two W11 didn't display any of the issues they faced at Silverstone, and were able to show a good pace. Hamilton led the race from the get go, taking the lead after turn 1. He got a perfect start, while his teammate struggled for grip and dropped at the 4th place, behind Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll. 

Unexpectedly, Max Verstappen complained about tyres as soon as lap 20. He stopped before the two Mercedes during the lap 22. Hamilton and Bottas followed him in  lap 23, and emerged respectively in P1 and P3. 

The tyres strategy was set to be a two-stopper for the majority of the drivers but Perez, Vettel, Ocon and Magnussen. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez crossed the line in fourth, but dropped to fifth thanks to a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags. Sebastian Vettel finished in P7, after arguing with his race engineer about whether he could make his soft tyres last to the end. He has been rewarded with the popular "driver of the day" award. 

The Racing Point stable can be satisfied with both their drivers being "the best of the rest" in 4th and 5th. McLaren also scored a good amount of points with Carlos Sainz 6th, and Lando Norris 10th. Alex Albon suffered from his stint on the hardest compound but managed to get the 8th, with Gasly 9th.

The only DNF of the race came from Charles Leclerc, he stopped at lap 40 for what is thought to be an electrical  problem. 

Lewis Hamilton led the race from start to finish, and was in contention for a grand slam until Valtteri Bottas secured the fastest lap. With this win however, he breaks the Micheal Schumacher's record of 155 podiums.