CAN LEWIS STAYON TOP?

British star says spanish dominationisn’ t likely to last

Lewis Hamilton claimed his second grand prix victory of the season in crushing fashion at Barcelona, but admits he doesn’t expect Mercedes’ dominance to last.

Hamilton converted pole position into a second consecutive victory to earn a 17-point lead in the world championship over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who could only manage fourth place.

Hamilton said the win was a shot in the arm in his bid for a fifth world title, but downplayed the Silver Arrows’ chances of running away with the next two races in Monaco and Canada.

“This has been a rejuvenating experience, and I finally felt comfortable and confident in the car again,” said Hamilton. “But there’s some really challenging races coming up for us where others will be really hard to beat.”

Lewis Hamilton doesn’t believe that his crushing victory in last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will be a precursor to Mercedes domination for the rest of the season, admitting he knows he has a fight on his hands to stay on top over the next few races.

Hamilton and Mercedes proved the perfect combination at Barcelona last weekend, with the Briton driving away from the pack to secure a comfortable victory. The result was Hamilton’s second victory of the season, and moves him into a 17-point lead in the championship over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who could only manage fourth place after struggling with tyre wear.

However, despite the ominous performance, Hamilton said he wasn’t expecting to enjoy similar form in either of the next two races – in Monaco and Canada. Mercedes notably struggled in Monaco last season, with Hamilton not making a Q3 appearance and then salvaging a disappointing seventh place in the race.

Hamilton said he felt he made a breakthrough in car set-up in Spain, but also urged caution for his team moving forwards.

“I think today has been a really rejuvenating experience,” he said. “People probably think it was an easy race and that I was cruising. I wasn’t. I was comfortable, and at no point did I think I was going to lose it, but I was still pushing every single lap, using it as a test bench to understand what I liked about the balance [of the car], how I can play with it a bit more, can I squeeze any more out of it?

“In the debrief you can be very particular. The cool thing about being a world champion is that the team listens to you, because you’re not talking gibberish. They go away and focus on the areas you mention, look at the data, try to work on it, and it’s an amazing process that you do together. Then it comes back and it works.

“In Melbourne [back in March] I was really comfortable with the car, with the balance, and since then I just didn’t have the confidence to attack, to lean on the car, to have the rear particularly where I wanted it. For whatever reason, I still didn’t have that yesterday [Saturday]. It was nervous and snappy throughout qualifying. Today we just happened to get the right wing setting for the race, and the car was a little bit nicer to drive. I could see that in my timing. I was much more comfortable. Then you see the times – I was amazed to see the pace I had against the others.”

When asked if he felt he could carry this momentum into Monaco and beyond, Hamilton said: “Going into the next few races, I really don’t know. I think this has been a good race in terms of feeling again, a similar feeling to the first race, which shows it wasn’t a one-off. But there are a lot of really challenging races coming up.

“Monaco is going to be a serious challenge. The others are going to be hard to beat, if you look at [Red Bull’s] Daniel Ricciardo today he was much quicker in the final sector here, and the last sector is all downforce, so they’re going to be rapid in Monaco. Montreal as well, where it’s very, very difficult to get heat into the tyres. I don’t think it’s going to be as clear as it was today at every single race.”

Last year’s Mercedes W08 often struggled to get its Pirelli tyres into the right temperature operating window, something that hurt the car at lower-speed tracks and earned it the nickname of ‘the diva’. This year’s car has addressed some of that weakness, but Mercedes still struggled for tyre temperature in China this season, where it lagged behind Ferrari and Red Bull.

Mercedes head Toto Wolff agreed with Hamilton, saying that the Monaco streets in particular had the team worried.

“We’re bloody worried [about Monaco],” said Wolff. “You can see that there’s always been tracks that have suited us well, and some where we weren’t perfect. It’s very difficult to undo the DNA of a car, and Monaco, Budapest, Singapore were all tracks where we underperformed – underperformed a lot last year.

“It’s a great challenge to come back this year to those places and try to tame ‘the diva’ – but she’s not a diva to drive this year, actually she’s behaving better so far. But it’s a difficult one – why our car doesn’t like to be quick around Monaco. We haven’t found the answer yet. We know what went wrong last year. As much as I’m overwhelmed by this win today, my mind is already on Monaco and I remember Sunday night there was not as pleasant last year.”

Wolff also believes that the win will be a mental boost for Hamilton, who has now racked up back-to-back wins following his early season drought.

“I believe that it’s about having a car underneath you that does what you want, drives like you expect it to and it’s about confidence,” said Wolff. “We let Lewis down in Melbourne [with a strategy call that cost him the lead to Vettel], and that stays in your mind. Now I think he’s put all of these things behind him and had a very good weekend, and this is what racing drivers need. They need results and podiums and wins and hopefully this is the beginning of a good phase – then immediately Monaco comes into my mind, and worry.

“But we’ve been competitive in winter testing in Barcelona and I think this track just suits us. But we’ve seen the performance swing from one race track to another, and even from day to day [like in Australia]. It can be difficult to cope when you suddenly find yourself behind a Ferrari and can’t overtake. But the best racing drivers are very sensitive and fragile. And that is something we know and Lewis knows. We struggled in many areas in the races after Melbourne, and that all adds up. It was in all our minds. But I think having such a good weekend here, where you’re able to put it on pole and win the race by a solid margin is very important for Lewis’s confidence and everybody’s confidence in the team going forward.”