Is this the race that killed the F1 Championship in 2020?

The Spanish Grand Prix looked set to be a real battle between Mercedes and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, but it turned into another routine Lewis Hamilton victory.

What happened to the Red Bull challenge?

“Bring up the heat!” That was the message from Toto Wolff to rival team boss Christian Horner as they followed the Spanish Grand Prix under the pop stage.

Above them, Lewis Hamilton stood victoriously on the top step, fresh from a crushing 24-second victory over Max Verstappen in the intense heat of the Spanish summer. Less than 24 hours earlier, Wolff had told reporters he was convinced the hot conditions would play into Red Bull’s hands over a race distance. Red Bull had seen faster than Mercedes on heavy fuel on Friday and it fits the story from the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix that the W11 has a real weakness in the heat.

But 16 laps into the race, it was clear Verstappen’s pace was not a match for Hamilton’s. The leading Mercedes continued to pull away as Verstappen became increasingly obsessed with Valtteri Bottas’ second Mercedes in its mirrors and the condition of the tires on his Red Bull. Midway through the race, Verstappen had to remember his pit wall to focus on his race instead of that of Hamilton’s, and was all hoping to close a fight back in the final third of the race.

In truth, Mercedes was cross. Something that became clear on Lap 63 when both Mercedes cars ran two seconds faster than Verstappen when they fought over the fastest lap. Credit should go to Red Bull for splitting the two Mercedes with an inferior car, but if anything underscores the clamor in the performance between Hamilton and Bottas this year. In qualifying, the margin was just 0.049 s between the Mercedes teammates, but in the race, as was so often the case this year, Hamilton sat in a different class.

The result means that Hamilton has his lead in the championship to 37 points over Verstappen and 43 points over Bottas. After just six races, these numbers are enormous and there is every indication that they will increase in the coming weeks. Hoping for a Red Bull championship challenge hung on replicating the conditions of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at enough races to tackle Verstappen. But it is becoming increasingly likely that that hot summer day in Silverstone was just an anomaly in an otherwise dominant season for the reigning world champions.

Vettel frustrated, but back in the points

It was a welcome return to the points for Sebastian Vettel, who managed to finish seventh on the back of a very well managed one-stop strategy. He rode 36 laps on the soft tire and was able to go to the flag, while most of his midfield rivals followed the more conventional two-stop strategy that Pirelli suggested was the fastest for the race.

But during the race, we gained more revealing insight into how much Vettel’s relationship with Ferrari has changed.

Ferrari first said that he pressed on those soft tires, an instruction that was normally given for a call to ask for fresh tires, and then Ferrari told him that it considered the end of the race to go on those tires – that strategy obviously requires a driver to be looking for his tires, not because of them burning.

Vettel’s response on the radio was, “Ah, f — sake! I asked you this before!”

While it may be stored in the clutches of interesting calls from Ferrari strategy, the conflicting messages were fortunately not too significant for the end result.

Explaining his frustration, Vettel said: “It’s very simple, we had nothing to lose. We were P11 and tried to compensate until the end of the race.

“We caught the cars ahead and then pissed them off for their second stop, but I was not in a hurry to catch them, manage my tires, then I was told to push. What I did, and then I was asked if I could do it at the end I said ‘well, you could have asked that a few rounds before’, because I had asked a few times what the goal is and how long we want, so I could take care of my tires. I said we were trying to make it happen. “

Vettel also acknowledged that he still has work to do before fully understanding his recent battle with the Ferrari, saying his first stint was still a battle. Sure, it was only seventh place, but seeing how uncomfortable it looked after a very big fight like Vettel did over the course of two race weeks at Silverstone, the fact that Vettel’s end result was positive was an encouraging sign.

Raikkonen the record breaker

There is a lot of talk about the Michael Schumacher records Lewis Hamilton is getting closer to, but Kimi Räikkönen claimed a place in the history books in another category this afternoon. No driver has completed more laps in an F1 car than the Finn – after completing lap 37, Kimi Räikkönen had driven a record 83,846 kilometers in F1. That is more than two rounds of the earth.

Of course, Raikkonen has repeatedly stressed how poorly he cares about this kind of records, but he will get more questions about similar lines at upcoming races. He is now three races away from matching Rubens Barichello’s record of 322 race starts.