‘This is more like it!’
Mercedes restores order at top with Hamilton’s Spanish GP win
LEWIS HAMILTON and Mercedes are not done just yet.
Hamilton put in a dominant performance at the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday, winning with ease and showing Ferrari that Mercedes remains the team to beat in Formula One (F1).
Hamilton’s strong run helped Mercedes re-establish order at the top of the field after seeing Ferrari dominate most of the early season.
“This is more like it,” Hamilton said on the team radio. “Let’s keep this up.”
Valtteri Bottas secured a one-two for Mercedes at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while Max Verstappen completed the podium despite finishing the race with a broken front wing on his Red Bull.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who now trails Vettel by 17 points in the drivers’ standings, was only fourth after a change in strategy did not pay off.
It was the first one-two of the season for Mercedes, which had struggled to keep pace with the Ferraris.
“Today, the car and myself, I felt that synergy which I hadn’t been feeling for the whole year,” Hamilton said. “It’s a good feeling.”
Hamilton was never challenged on the way to his 41st win from pole position, surpassing a record he shared with seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. It was Hamilton’s 64th career win, leaving him 27 behind Schumacher’s record of 91 victories.
VERY SURREAL
“I remember like it was yesterday sitting at home playing this computer game as Michael,” Hamilton said. “It’s just very surreal to think that every now and then I keep coming up against Michael in terms of records. He has some serious records. It’s hard to beat all of these records that he has.”
Hamilton also became the first F1 driver to finish in the points in 30 consecutive races.
“This weekend we got ourselves on the right path,” Hamilton said. “I would like to hope it could be part of the turning point.”
Hamilton had also won in Azerbaijan two weeks ago, but that victory came mostly because of incidents involving his closest competitors, including a blown tire for Bottas, a mistake by Vettel and a crash between Red Bull teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen.
Ricciardo was fifth in Barcelona, ahead of Kevin Magnussen of Haas and the Spanish duo of Carlos Sainz of Renault and Fernando Alonso of McLaren.
Charles Leclerc of Sauber and Sergio Perez of Force India closed out the top 10.