F1 2015: Rosberg victorious for Mercedes at Spanish GP

Team OD Published: May 10, 2015, 10:52 PM IST

Nico Rosberg took his first win of the 2015 season, dominating at the Spanish GP at Catalunya, the fifth race of this year's Formula 1 championship. Rosberg started the race from pole position and led the GP when the five red lights went out. Hamilton, for a change, didn't have quite so good a start, with Sebastian Vettel managing to steal second place from the Mercedes driver.

Victory at the 2015 Spanish GP has helped Rosberg revive his title hopes

This would set the trend for the entire race. Rosberg ploughed on ahead at the front of the pack, while Hamilton spent the first two stints trapped behind the Ferrari of Vettel. This meant that he needed to be put on a three-stop strategy, which allowed him to get past the Ferrari driver. And while Mercedes' tyre strategy helped him get past Vettel, he still wasn't able to take the challenge to Rosberg, allowing his team-mate to take his first victory since the 2014 Brazilian GP.

The win at Catalunya means that Rosberg has managed to keep his championship hopes alive, closing the gap to championship leader Hamilton to just 20 points. Behind him, third in the standings, is Vettel, 33 points behind the Lewis.

The Spanish Grand Prix also saw another strong performance from the Williams team with Valtteri Bottas finishing fourth. Ferrari's 2007 world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, finished the race fifth. Felipe Massa's sixth place finish was another indicator that the Williams Team is truly competitive this season, although whether or not they can take the challenge to Ferrari remains to be seen.

Daniel Ricciardo put the first of the Red Bulls seventh, with his team-mate Daniil Kvyat finishing ninth. It was a disastrous race for Lotus in some ways. Romain Grosjean clipped team-mate Pastor Maldonado's car early on. However Grosjean still managed to finish in eighth place, taking home points for the team. Carlos Sainz ended the race tenth, with team-mate Max Verstappen finishing just outside the points in eleventh.