Australian Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo has claimed his first career podium finish, coming third in the Spanish Grand Prix and beating his team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Ricciardo was stripped of his second-place podium finish in his home season-opener in Melbourne in March for a fuel irregularity.

Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix for Mercedes on Monday morning (AEST) to chalk up his fourth victory in a row and wrest the Formula One championship lead from ‘gutted’ German team-mate Nico Rosberg.

In what was also the fourth successive Mercedes one-two, and fifth win in five races for the dominant constructor, Hamilton took the chequered flag a mere 0.6 of a second ahead of his rival.

Rosberg piled pressure on Hamilton by slashing the Briton’s lead over the last six laps and looming ominously in his mirrors.
Hamilton, who now has 100 points to Rosberg’s 97 after his 26th career victory and leads the standings for the first time since 2012 when he was at McLaren,
sounded increasingly anxious in radio traffic but held on for his first win in Spain.

Ricciardo’s team-mate and quadruple world champion Vettel finished fourth and sits at the same ranking for the driver championship.

Vettel has had many setbacks to the 2014 season and came to the Spanish Grand Prix with a newly modelled chassis. He qualified at a 15th place start after a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Monacco is next, with the famous Grand Prix starting on May 22.