Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton cruised to a dominant victory in the Styrian Grand Prix on Sunday to record his first victory of the season.

Hamilton led from pole position till the end as team-mate Valtteri Bottas overtook Red Bull’s Max Verstappen late on for second in the season’s second race.

Charles Leclerc’s error on the first lap saw him crash into teammate Sebastian Vettel causing both Ferraris to retire early.

Majority of the drivers took the knee ahead of the race in solidarity with global anti-racism campaigns but just like in the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, some drivers elected to stand although all wore T-shirts with “end racism” slogans apart from Hamilton’s, whose said “Black Lives Matter”.

Charles Leclerc, Verstappen, Kimi Raikkonen and Daniil Kvyat chose not to kneel.

Bottas who won last weekend made a late surge to complete a Mercedes one-two and he retains the championship lead over Hamilton, but the gap is now down to eight points.

It was another disappointing weekend for Ferrari after their poor showing in the Austrian GP.

The Italian team had worked flat out to bring upgrades to their car ahead of this race to correct their dismal pace the week before.

But they did not have the effect they had hoped and the cars could qualify only 10th and 11th. Leclerc started a further three places back after a three-place grid penalty for blocking in qualifying.

And things got much worse in the race with Leclerc bid for an over-ambitious move up the inside of Turn Three on the first lap caused him to collide into Vettel.

Vettel’s rear wing was torn off and Leclerc suffered floor damage and both had to retire.

Next up in the F1 calendar is the Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend.