Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton performed an almost perfect race at the Spanish Grand Prix, taking every lap of the pole to record his fifth Spanish Grand Prix win, and his fourth victory of the season, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen leading the way. t home came ahead of Valtteri Bottas’ sister Mercedes.
The seeds of Hamilton’s victory were sown for him by a strong start, as Bottas fell from P2 to P4 off the line, before finally returning to third, while Verstappen jumped to second after the second, but ultimately no one could make it into the round in Hamilton’s lead when he completed 24s.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez finished fourth, but dropped to fifth through a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags, allowing Lance Stroll to claim P4. Perez eventually finished in fifth place, ahead of Carlos Sainz’s McLaren – who maintained his 100% record in points at home – and Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari, who benefited from a late decision. to switch him to one stop strategy to get home in seventh.
DRIVER OF THE DAY: Gritty one-stop drive gets Vettel your vote
He finished ahead of Alex Albon’s second Red Bull, the Thai driver who was hurt by having to switch early to a set of hards, while Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri and Lando Norris’ second McLaren ran the top 10 – the expected Renault’s strong racing pace after failing to materialize on race day, when Daniel Ricciardo won 11th, with Esteban Ocon 13th.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, was the only driver to retire from the race, the Monegasque suffering an electrical issue at the halfway point that put him in a spin on Turn 15, before finally bending his SF1000.
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1 Lewis Hamilton HAM Mercedes |
1: 31: 45.279 | 25 |
|
2 Max Step away VER Red Bull Racing |
+ 24.177s | 18 |
|
3 Valtteri Bottas BOT Mercedes |
+ 44.752s | 16 |
|
4 Lance Stroll STR Racing Point |
+1 round | 12 |
|
5 Sergio Perez MAY Racing Point |
+1 round | 10 |
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6 Carlos Sainz SAI McLaren |
+1 round | 8 |
|
7 Sebastian Vettel FET Ferrari |
+1 round | 6 |
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8 Alexander Albon ALB Red Bull Racing |
+1 round | 4 |
|
9 Pierre Gasly GAS AlphaTauri |
+1 round | 2 |
|
10 Lando Norris NOR McLaren |
+1 round | 1 |
Highlights of race: Spanish Grand Prix of 2020
IF IT HAPPENS
Hamilton was flawless from the start, hitting the 612-yard track down to Turn 1. Besides, there was not much wrong with Valtteri Bottas’ getaway.
But the quick start of Max Verstappen of the third, and right behind Hamilton, prevented Bottas from slipping into his teammate’s slipstream, allowing Verstappen into the second, while an incisive Lance Stroll darted first to the left and then all the way over. to the right of the track before diving inside Bottas to cut third with a brilliant move.
Bottas was then in the fourth down, and was almost also handcuffed by Sergio Perez’s sister Racing Point, who was a moment ahead of the Finn at Turn 3 before Bottas went ahead again.
Alex Albon had enjoyed a nice start to P6, but was fired by Bottas in Turn 2, he had to get off the gas valve and lose his advantage to stay sixth. Pierre Gasly had a good start in the AlphaTauri, and jumped two places to eighth when Lando Norris fell to two to P10.
Spanish Grand Prix: Watch the start of the race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
After starting P13, Daniel Ricciardo had initially made a place by passing Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri, but lost it again after a fantastic move on Lap 2 of the Russians, which passed him again on the outside of Turn 4, just like he had done on Kimi Raikkonen in the 2019 race.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen had a fantastic start of 16th on the roster, past Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo and Esteban Ocon’s Renault.
A presumably frustrated Bottas then made DRS-ed his way past Stroll for third on Lap 5 of 66, allowing vaguely normal services back for Mercedes, although with Verstappen now between their two cars.
The Dutchman had done well to keep the jackets of a ‘super slow’ (in Verstappen’s words) Hamilton for the first 10 laps of the race, and stayed within about two seconds of the Mercedes. But when Hamilton began to open the taps from Lap 10, Verstappen struggled to live with it, complaining about his soft rear tires when he fell through Lap 20 after about six seconds.
His teammate Albon, after being trapped in the sixth behind the Racing Points of Stroll and Perez, was pitted on Lap 18, Red Bull put him on the hard tires (with only one set of new mediums available) and put him on all the way down in 16th. It was four laps later for Verstappen, however (with a stop of 1.9 s for good measure) the Dutchman had become increasingly frustrated on team radio about the condition of his soft tires.
He managed in third just to advance to the Racing Point of Stroll. With Hamilton running an 11-second hole on Bottas, Mercedes could then double Hamilton and Bottas on Lap 24, Hamilton maintained his lead despite a slow stop of 4.3 s, with Bottas sliding in third behind Verstappen.
The hottest battle through the center of the race on Lap 33 was thanks to an enormous train of jostling cars led by fourth-placed Daniel Ricciardo – the Australian who was still stopping – ahead of Stroll, Perez, Sainz, Albon , Ocon (also yet to stop), Gasly, Norris, Leclerc and Kvyat, with Vettel falling from the back of the group.
Eyes began to draw, meanwhile, to an intimidating bank of clouds rising to the north of the circuit, with Hamilton – around 8 s clear of Verstappen, with Bottas in close quarters – questioning the risk of rain, although they would eventually succeed in not arriving in time to spoil Hamilton’s party.
There were also clouds on the horizon of Charles Leclerc, with his Ferrari SF1000’s engine cut on Lap 37, the rear axle locked and he turned at turn 15. He managed to go through it again (his belts undone after turning that his race was running), but reported the car as ‘strange’, Ferrari tried to both repair Leclerc’s car and belt him back before the Monegasque finally went into the garage and left the race, with an electrical problem later diagnosed.
Albon signaled the start of the second round of stops on Lap 40, shook off his hard tires and picked up mediums, while Verstappen later came in two rounds for mediums, after appearing to have wrestled on his previous set, coming up in ‘ the third, 30s off Hamilton.
Sainz had his own second stop on Lap 43, the Spaniard came in 10th just ahead of Albon, before wisely resisting the Thai driver trying to pass him – Albon called Sainz’s naughty defense “dangerous”, but the stewards saw no need to investigate.
Bottas was put on Lap 49 on new species, allowing Verstappen to continue for second. Hamilton would later get in a shot, but resisted him. ‘Do not make me on the soft man,’ he pleads with his engineer. He stopped at Lap 51 of 66, grabbed mediums instead and maintained his lead.
Vettel finished in fifth place through Lap 52, after not making his second step yet. “What do you think about the end?” came the hopeful call of his engineer, and aroused an angry reaction from Vettel. ‘I asked you about this before!’ he roared, before arriving. “We have nothing to lose,” he said, calling out Ferrari for a strategic call for the second time in seven days …
Like said, however, he had nothing to lose. He could not move Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz passed, but he then settled comfortably in seventh place on species that, by the checkered flag, were nearly 40 laps old.
At the front, Bottas’ move to the softs had failed to pay dividends because he was unable to put in Verstappen, with the Finn calling the fight a round from the end and for new mediums pitte. He pretty much took the fastest lap, the only thing left in his arsenal to commemorate the day of his teammate, as he preferred Hamilton to take a grand slam of pole, the fastest lap, win and lead each lap.
Otherwise, however, the Spanish Grand Prix was the whole of Hamilton, as he crossed the line 24s the way from Verstappen for victory # 88, after beating everyone to P4, with Verstappen retaining his 100% stage record in ‘ the races he has completed this year. Hamilton also took his 156th stage finish, setting a new record in the sport, one ahead of Michael Schumacher.
Sergio Perez had worked out a one-stop strategy beautifully to take fourth on the road, but that was fifth after a five-second penalty was applied for ignoring blue flags – Daniil Kvyat suffered the same fate.
That put Lance Stroll up in P4 – the Racing Points yet to take a stage in 2020, although this was their best finish of the year – Perez took fifth for Sainz, who had one of his strongest races of 2020, his chassis and change of power unit seems to restore the confidence of the Spaniard, and once again made him a thorn in the side of the second Red Bull car, as he had been for much of 2019.
Spanish Grand Prix: Raikkonen clashes almost with Grosjean
Behind Vettel – who would be a mix of happy with seventh, but frustrated with having to coach his team out of the car again – Albon saved his blushes by keeping Gasly’s AlphaTauri narrow, while Norris failed to make it to the match equal pace of his teammate on Sunday, 10th coming home.
Meanwhile, with Renault’s new CEO Luca de Meo in town to see how the team was doing, it was not a great day for the Directed by, Ricciardo could only take 11th, while even Kvyat’s penalty was not enough to elevate Esteban Ocon past the Russians, as he finished 13th, with Kvyat in between in 12th.
Romain Grosjean was ranked 19th and final, and may have some explanation to make at the next meeting of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, after he again made a late defensive move, this time on Raikkonen – while a scrap with Giovinazzi’s sister Alfa saw Grosjean run out at Turn 1, damaged his car a bit.
Raikkonen finished 14th, ahead of the Rabbit of Magnussen, teammate Giovinazzi in 16th, with the two Williams of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi for Grosjean in P17 and P18 – with Grosjean adding a final bloom from a half spin at Turn 8 a round of the end for good size.
Hamilton’s win, meanwhile, moved him 37 points clear of Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, with Verstappen even now six for Bottas. Can the Hamilton juggernaut be stopped in two weeks time at the next race, the Belgian Grand Prix? We can not wait to find out.
The main quote
‘I was just having fun … it felt really good! It felt like a fantastic effort from the team, but oh God, it felt good out there. It was a real surprise because we had this problem with the tires.
“Management was very, very good and I think it’s finally our understanding of what happened last week, what we brought this weekend, has necessarily allowed us to do what we did today. I did not even know it was the last round was at the end, that’s how zone I was, I was ready to go on.
“I just want to say a big thank you to all the guys in the factory through this really difficult time, for everyone in the world to keep pushing and stay safe, I hope everyone stays home safe so we don’t have to wear these masks only to protect ourselves and other people ”- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
What comes next
We are now at the end of the second triple header of 2020, so it is time for a bit of rest before racing returns to the beautiful Spa-Francorchamps with the Belgian Grand Prix on 28-30 August.
