He also stretched his overall lead to 37 points. The victory from pole position at the Circuit de Catalunya was the 88th of the Mercedes driver’s career, with all but the top three lapped on a sweltering afternoon of few thrills. Hamilton is now just three wins short of Ferrari great Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91 wins.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Hamilton’s closest challenger, finished second with Valtteri Bottas third for Mercedes, having taken the fastest lap after a late stop for fresh tyres. Verstappen has now beaten Bottas in the last four races and been second to Hamilton, who has won four of six, in three of them.

Six-time champion Hamilton now has 132 points to Verstappen’s 95 and Bottas’s 89. Canadian Lance Stroll took fourth place for Racing Point. Mexican teammate Sergio Perez was ahead of him at the finish, but carried a five-second penalty for ignoring blue warning flags.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz was sixth for McLaren and Sebastian Vettel seventh for Ferrari, after doing close to 40 laps on one set of soft tyres, with Alexander Albon eighth for Red Bull. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was ninth and Lando Norris took the final point for McLaren. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the sole one to retire.