For a long time, the race seemed to be heading the way of one of the Mercedes drivers, as Russell converted his pole position into a lead from Hamilton and Antonelli at the start and the two raced in that order for almost the first half of the race.
The divergent strategies of the three cars became apparent as soon as Hamilton pitted on lap 11 to change his soft tyres.
Russell and Antonelli had started on the medium compound, but Mercedes chose to bring them in after Hamilton to protect track position, even though the team’s radio communications made it obvious they knew they were on a different strategy.
When Hamilton pitted for a second time on lap 27, Antonelli began to pressure Russell for the lead, closing right up on his team-mate and trying a couple of times to pass into Turn One.
But the two drivers were warned not to waste too much time fighting, in the context of their battle with Hamilton.
Russell stopped for a final time on lap 36, Antonelli a lap later, handing the lead to Hamilton, who still had one stop to make.
Hamilton’s job initially looked like it was to lose as little time as possible to the advancing Mercedes on their fresher tyres, before pitting, dropping to third, and trying to catch them again.
But Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin broke down at Turn Nine on lap 40, and that led to a VSC being deployed to recover the car safely.
Under a VSC, cars have to slow down and maintain their gaps, but as they are travelling slower, it means a pit stop costs relatively less time than under racing conditions.
Hamilton had a 14-second lead, and that was enough margin to stop under the VSC and come out still in front.
It put him in a strong position, out front and with tyres that were eight laps fresher. Only a problem now could cost him a victory and the car ran like clockwork to the end for Hamilton’s 106th grand prix victory and Ferrari’s first since Mexico 2024.
There were two small ironies. Hamilton’s win was Ferrari’s first in Spain since 2013, when the man who delivered it was Alonso, whose retirement caused the VSC that delivered this next one to his old arch-rival.
And the post-race interviews were conducted by Nico Rosberg, Hamilton’s former Mercedes team-mate, with whom he had also had an acrimonious relationship when they were in the same team – and 10 years since the pair crashed together on the first lap of this race when competing for the title.