Lewis Hamilton held off Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg over the dying stages of the Spanish Grand Prix to win his fourth successive race.

The gap was just 0.6 seconds between the duelling duo come the chequered flag that dropped after 66 laps, allowing Hamilton to move to the top of the championship for the first time in almost two years.

Daniel Ricciardo finished on the podium for the second time this season, albeit for the first time legitimately after the Australian was disqualified from his home race in March after a fuel irregularity with his Red Bull.

Hamilton now has history on his side because on every one of the 19 previous occasions a driver has won four races in a row in one season he has gone on to claim the world championship.

For Hamilton, this victory will also serve as a crucial psychological blow as it again appeared as if Rosberg had the strategic edge, as in Bahrain last month.

But again Hamilton was able to keep Rosberg at bay, leaving the German to settle for second place for the fourth straight race, with the latter now three points adrift.

On the podium, a clearly relieved Hamilton said: “A big thank you to my team, my first win here in Spain, and it means everything to me.

“Overall, I wasn’t fast enough, Nico was quicker, so I had to rely on my engineers a lot more to help me with my settings.

“Fortunately I was able to keep him behind me.” As for Rosberg, he felt he would have had a shot at Hamilton if there had been one more lap. Describing himself as “a bit gutted” at losing his championship lead, Rosberg added: “There are still plenty more races to go.”.

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