Lights Out: Mercedes elation tells deeper story

The Spanish Grand Prix had a decidedly retro feel about it: Mercedes locking out the front row and then Lewis Hamilton darting away to control and suffocate the race into an easy win. The celebrations among the Silver Arrows point to an altogether more testing time, however.

Hamilton was painted rather miserably after winning in Azerbaijan - a victory he had neither deserved or expected until Valtteri Bottas' tyre shredded in front of him.

However, we were back to the Hamilton of old after his victory in Barcelona on Sunday, the four-time world champion all limby leaps into his team's arms, celestial thanks and blinding race engineer Pete Bonnington with champagne.

The outpouring was as much filled with relief as it was joy. The Silver Arrows had grown accustomed to performances like this weekend's over the past four years, but they had not enjoyed one in the opening four races of 2018.

After taking his 74th pole position, Hamilton said he had "needed" it, the message after grand-prix triumph number 64 was that Mercedes' season starts now.

It was at a similar point 12 months ago that Hamilton began on a tear that would ultimately land him the world title ahead of Sebastian Vettel, and the Ferrari man will rue momentum slipping away from him yet again after the Scuderia's pit-stop gamble backfired, costing him second place and dropping him 17 points off Hamilton.

However, Monaco is next up and will be expected to stem the positivity of the new leaders of the constructors' standings. Ferrari were Mercedes-esque in their dominance of Monte Carlo last year, while the ever-improving Red Bulls should not be counted out.

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• It wasn't a great weekend for Liberty. First, a costly refund had to be paid out after F1 TV's failure prevented fans from watching Sunday's action. F1 officials were also forced into a red-faced apology to Niki Lauda - three-time world champion and presence at every grand prix - for calling him 'Nicki Lauder' in a subscriber email.
• The F2 races in Barcelona were typically thrilling, but Sunday's sprint was also notable for the halo device saving a driver from serious injury for the first time.
• After their Baku wipeout, Red Bull were back on the board in third and fifth. Max Verstappen was lucky to take the podium after making contact AGAIN in a race, while Daniel Ricciardo endured a boring time of it in a lonely race well off the fight at the front.

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