Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes put on a tactical masterclass to victory in a fifth consecutive Spanish GP in Barcelona, Spain.
BREAKING: @LewisHamilton wins in Spain! 🏁
He finishes ahead of Max Verstappen (P2) and Valtteri Bottas (P3) to claim his third race win of the season 🏆#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/15fd6sY0TF
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 9, 2021
Hamilton and Mercedes had their work cut out for a fifth consecutive win on a Spanish circuit that is notoriously difficult to overtake on – and so the team rolled the strategy dice with a second pit stop for fresh tyres to try and set up a grandstand finish, He extends his title lead over Verstappen to 14 points too.
LEWIS: “First, I want to acknowledge all the fans that are here. It’s great to see. I feel great… the training’s working and paying off. It was a really great strategy by the team. What a day!”#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/lwSdXuZxRy
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 9, 2021
That’s three wins in four races for him and 98th in total. Verstappen crosses in second with the fastest lap. Bottas third. Then Leclerc, Perez, Ricciardo, Sainz, Norris, Ocon and Gasly. That was a real tactical victory for Mercedes. His engineer sums it up on the radio: “Get in there Lewis, you made that strategy work beautifully!”
Top 5
- 1 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- 2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull, +15.8)
- 3 Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes, +26.6)
- 4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, +54.6)
- 5 Sergio Perez (Red Bull, +63.6)
“That was the might of Mercedes and the brilliance of Lewis Hamilton combining – and they caught Red Bull off guard,” said Sky F1’s Martin Brundle.
Hamilton said: “I feel great after this, I feel like I could go again! I was hunting, I was so close so I wasn’t sure I could make the tyres last [in the dirty air] so it was a gamble but a great strategy by the team. A remarkable job by everyone in this team and yeah, what a day!”
“I was just hunting. I was so close for so long and I didn’t think in doing that I was going to be able to make the tyres last,” said Hamilton. “But I just managed to. It was a long way to come back from 20-odd seconds back but it was a good gamble, a really great strategy from the team.”
Max Verstappen is probably feeling philosophical about giving up the lead and it was Lewis who took the advantage and won the Spanish GP.
Verstappen said: “In a way, I could see it coming. Already at the end with the softs, he was faster, and then when we were put on the mediums he clearly had a lot more pace. “There was not much we could have done. You could see every lap he was getting closer and closer. I was a bit of a sitting duck.”
