Strategic masterstroke enables Hamilton to beat Verstappen

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Lewis Hamilton became the first Formula 1 driver to achieve a century of poles and converting it to his 98^th career victory after a race long battle with title rival Max Verstappen at Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in Spain. Verstappen finished P2 with a bonus point for the fastest lap and Valtteri Bottas completed the podium.

London, 10 May 2021: Strategic masterstroke by Mercedes enabled Lewis Hamilton to win his third race of the season ahead of Max Verstappen in P2 and Valtteri Bottas in P3. The trio appearing on the Spanish GP podium for the fourth consecutive year. Charles Leclerc was best of the rest in Ferrari in P4, with second Red Bull of Sergio Perez finishing in P5. Daniel Ricciardo had his best race of the season as he finished P6 for McLaren ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in P7 and teammate Lando Norris in P8. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon scored for a third consecutive race, finishing P9, meanwhile, a late move by Pierre Gasly on Lance Stroll meant the AlphaTauri driver finished P10.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel finished in P11 and P13 respectively, sandwiching Kimi Raikkonen in P12. Alfa Romeo teammate Antonio Giovinazzi finished P15, behind Williams’ George Russell. Nicholas Latifi beat Fernando Alonso while both Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin finished P18 and P19. Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri was the sole retirement due to engine issues.

Verstappen got a brilliant start and was alongside polesitter Hamilton as they approached turn 1. With the Dutchman diving on the inside and snatching the lead, Hamilton had to settle for P2. Behind Bottas lost out to Leclerc as he pulled of an overtake on the outside of turn 3. Ricciardo jumped to P5 and Perez to P6 as Esteban Ocon fell back to P7. Gasly got a five-second time penalty for starting the race outside of his position.

The front running duo checked out as they built an 8s advantage over Leclerc in P3 and Bottas in P4, the Finn still unable to find a way past the Ferrari. On lap 8, Tsunoda’s engine shut off, the car grounding to a halt at the reprofiled turn 10. The safety car was called out, neutralising the race. Giovinazzi and both the Williams cars pitted for medium tyres under the safety car.

The race got underway on lap 11 with Verstappen and Hamilton once again checking out in the lead while Leclerc managing to stay ahead of Bottas. Behind, Stroll moved past Alonso’s Alpine to run P10. Bottas pitted on lap 23 for medium tyres to undercut Leclerc while the rest of the midfield doing the same on lap 22 and 23.

Ahead, Hamilton was hovering around 1s behind Verstappen with Verstappen pulling the trigger on lap 24 to pit for medium tyres, this was to prevent from Hamilton attempting an undercut on the Red Bull. It was an uncharacteristically slow pit stop for Red Bull, which meant had Hamilton pitted the next lap he would have emerged in the lead. That was not to be as he carried on for four more laps, eventually pitting on lap 28 and emerging 6s behind the Dutchman.

Hamilton quickly caught up to the gearbox of Verstappen, eroding the leader’s advantage. The Briton again hovering around 1s and pressurising the Red Bull but unable to get past. Behind, Bottas was running in P3 as Leclerc had pitted on lap 28 and emerged behind the Mercedes.

Hamilton was called in to the pits again on lap 42 for another set of medium tyres as the gap to the rest of the field meant he had a free pit stop. This was a de ja vu to Hungary GP 2019 where Mercedes had done the same enabling Hamilton to win. Verstappen’s engineer echoed the same over radio saying, “it could be Hungary all over again”. Hamilton emerged in P3 22s behind the race leader. In the midfield, Perez was able to pass Ricciardo after multiple attempts to overtake for P5.

Bottas in P2 was instructed not to hold up Hamilton but he made the Briton’s life difficult holding him up for half of the lap, eventually Hamilton diving Bottas in turn 10 on lap 52. Hamilton now 9s behind Verstappen was lapping on average 1.5s faster, with the Dutchman understandably worried on the radio. By the end of lap 59 the Mercedes was once again on the gearbox of the Red Bull. With Hamilton getting supreme traction out of the last corner he was able to overtake Verstappen on lap 60 heading into turn 1.

Bottas had pitted for soft tyres to attempt the fastest lap. Verstappen followed suit after being relegated to P2.In the midfield, teams opted for a second stop as degradation was high, meaning a two stop would enable them for higher points. Only Alpine sticking to their original strategy.

Hamilton crossed the line in P1, winning the Spanish GP for the fifth consecutive time and equaling Ayrton Senna’s record for consecutive wins at one circuit- Senna winning 5 consecutive times at Monaco. Verstappen got a consolation point for fastest lap finishing in P2 as the Red Bull team had the slower car and were outsmarted on strategy. Hamilton extending his lead to 14 points and Mercedes doing the same to 29 points.

Before the race, all the teams had expected the race to be a one-stop. But as the race unfolded and tyre degradation was higher than expected, everyone shifted two a two stop. Ocon being the only one stopper who would eventually finish in the points.

Mercedes had a slight edge in qualifying and a clear advantage in race pace over Red Bull as Hamilton was able to follow Verstappen closely throughout the race. Compounded with that was the strategy and tyre usage. Mercedes had kept two sets of medium tyres for the race whereas Red Bull had just one. Meaning, Mercedes was in the optimum position to do a one or two stop depending on the situation. Also,the W12 was kinder on its tyres than the RB16B which enabled Hamilton to keep up the pressure on Verstappen. Finally, Mercedes have not introduced a raft of new upgrades, instead focusing on understanding and optimising their car to find pace. They have unlocked pace and improved drivability since the first race in Bahrain.

Red Bull arguably were on the backfoot as they had one car to fight against two Mercedes with Perez qualifying P8. This meant, that Hamilton got the free second pit stop which enabled him to win. The RB16B was lacking in race pace and was much worse on tyre degradation. With the car inherently more draggy it had a disadvantage over straight line speed as well. Also, with just having one set of medium tyres even if they wanted to come in a lap after Hamilton’s second pit stop, they would have struggled as the soft tyre would have dropped off towards the end and the hard tyre was too slow to be used in the race.

Ferrari were best of the rest this weekend with their car working great around the Barcelona track. Leclerc was able to qualify and finish P4 and Sainz too achieved a points finish in P7. Ferrari have lacked race pace to match their qualifying performances, but in Spain the car performed. Sainz even admitting that he should have finished higher up the order. McLaren played second fiddle to Ferrari as they were behind in both qualifying and race trim. Ricciardo arguably had his best race of the season but Norris was left frustrated after failing to maximise the potential of the MCL35M. Alpine have showed strong form in recent races, especially in the hands of Ocon. They showed better qualifying pace than McLaren and had they done a two-stop strategy, they could have another double points finish. Barcelona also gave evidence that Alpine’s new aerodynamic upgrades which included a new floor and front wing have added performance to the car.

AlphaTauri struggled at Barcelona with neither qualifying pace nor race pace matching Ferrari, McLaren and Alpine. They showed a lot of promise in Bahrain but since then have struggled.Gasly achieved the solitary point while reliability issues struck Tsunoda.Aston Martin were on the fringes of the top 10 pace but ultimately lost out. They introduced a new aerodynamic floor upgradewhich has improved the car but not to the extent the team were hoping for. They are still unable to regularly challenge for higher points positions. Alfa Romeo showed race pace equaling Aston Martineven though they have mediocre qualifying pace. It is a positive showing for the Italian team as they are not too far off challenging the top 10.

Williams once again showed promise as Russell made it to Q2 and was briefly running in the top 10. Eventually he lost out but nonetheless, the potential to match Alfa Romeo and challenge for points on a good day is there for Williams. Haas will be positive after Schumacher outqualified Latifi’s Williams on pure pace. Both drivers got another full race distance under them and Haas are slowly solving the balance issues plaguing their car. Nevertheless, it will be difficult to challenge for points given that no development of the car will take place.

Saturday Qualifying Results were:

Note: Mazepin penalised three places for impeding Norris during qualifying.