Barcelona, May 11 (IANS): Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg beat reigning world champion and team-mate Lewis Hamilton to win the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya here on Sunday.

The result means Rosberg has reduced Hamilton's advantage in the championship to 20 points, while Vettel is 31 points adrift in third place.

Hamilton was initially stuck behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel but switched to a different strategy to get ahead of him.

The German came third, ahead of Williams' Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen.

It was Mercedes' most dominant grand prix since the first race in Australia.

Ferrari had come to this weekend with a major upgrade package, with revisions to almost every aerodynamic surface of the car, but Mercedes were perhaps further ahead than they had been all season.

Rosberg converted his pole position into a lead at the first corner and simply cruised into the distance as Vettel held up Hamilton behind him.

Mercedes urged Hamilton to try to pass the Ferrari, but he told the team it was impossible to get close enough to overtake on the pit straight even with the help of the DRS overtaking aid.

Mercedes decided their best option was to give Hamilton some clear track, and told him that they would switch to a three-stop strategy and try to pass Vettel at the end of the race.

But Hamilton did not need to overtake the Ferrari on track.