Spanish Grand Prix 2014: The Top 10 Reader Results!

The fifth Grand Prix of the season in Barcelona was won by Lewis Hamilton, ahead of Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo. The rest of the top 10 included, in order, Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, Romain Grosjean, Sergio Pérez, and Nico Hülkenberg. There were 210 of you who voted, let’s see if you followed the race order…

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 25 pts

Fourth pole, fourth victory in five races, the Spanish Grand Prix allowed the Briton to take the lead in the drivers’ standings, at the cost of a psychological and timing battle that lasted until the final hectometers of the race. Despite palpable tension, he did not falter.

2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) – 18 pts

Performant and pressing, the German was nevertheless unable to get the better of Hamilton on a circuit where overtaking proves delicate at a similar level of performance. He demonstrated that he will not give his teammate any respite in the race for the title, even if he has to surrender his first place.

3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) – 15 pts

A completely missed Friday, a qualifying cut short by a gearbox problem and a penalty relegating him to 15th position on the starting grid, that was the mountain facing the four-time world champion when the lights went out. Despite this, thanks to an aggressive race marked by decisive overtakes and a three-stop strategy, he managed to finish in 4th position.

4. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) – 12 pts

Qualified in third position, but blocked by Bottas’s Williams during the first stint, the Australian waited patiently and then easily executed the undercut to secure a podium position, which he officially conquered after managing the final part of the race.

5. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) – 10 pts

The Finn enabled Williams to replicate their best result of the season after a relatively uneventful race: even though he managed to keep a more sprightly Red Bull behind him in the first part of the race, he could do nothing to counter Ricciardo and then the return of Vettel in the last third of the Grand Prix.

6. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) – 8 pts

After a very good qualifying for the Lotus E22, the Franco-Swiss driver finished his first race of the season in the points, in a delicate situation since the Geneva native suffered several issues related to a sensor failure. This situation, which notably allowed both Ferraris to gain an advantage, does not, however, hinder the return of Lotus.

7. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 6 pts

The duel between the two Ferrari drivers turned out, both on the track and in the top 10, in favor of the Spaniard, thanks to a three-stop strategy that allowed the double world champion to attack at the end of the race, overtaking the Finn whom he couldn’t get past when the two were in close contact.

8. Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) – 4 pts

On a two-stop strategy, Iceman was unable to keep Alonso behind in the final stint, although he had managed it for two-thirds of the race with some ease.

9. Nico Hülkenberg (Force India) – 2 pts

Starting in tenth place, the German driver did not particularly shine during this race but once again finished in the points.

10. Sergio Pérez (Force India) – 1 pt

Like his teammate, his race was discreet, but he managed to better handle his tire strategy to overtake him and secure ninth place in the end.

Update on readers’ rankings