Hamilton extends World Championship lead with Spanish GP win

Barcelona, Aug 16 Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton on Sunday clinched the Spanish Grand Prix for the fourth successive year to take a record 156th career podium finish and extend his championship lead to 37 points.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen finished second at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya with Valtteri Bottas third for Mercedes and taking the fastest lap.

Racing Point's Sergio Perez crossed the line in fourth but dropped to fifth thanks to a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags, allowing Lance Stroll to claim fourth spot, as per a report on Formula One's official website.

Perez slotted into fifth, ahead of the McLaren of Carlos Sainz - who maintained his spotless record of finishing in the points at his home race - and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, who benefitted from a late decision to switch him onto a one-stop strategy to come home in seventh, the report on formula1.com said.

He finished ahead of the second Red Bull of Alex Albon, the Thai driver hurt by having had to switch early to a set of hards, while the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly and the second McLaren of Lando Norris rounded out the top 10 - the expected strong race pace from Renault having failed to materialise on race day, as Daniel Ricciardo wound up 11th, with Esteban Ocon 13th.

( With inputs from IANS )