Hamilton closes on record as Vettel’s engine fails
In a car bristling with more sophisticated add-ons than the Starship Enterprise, Lewis Hamilton surged to the 64th pole position of his Formula One career at a sun-baked Circuit de Catalunya yesterday to prove that the momentum of this year’s championship fight has switched ominously back in Mercedes’ favour.
As the curtain-raiser to the European summer campaign, the Spanish Grand Prix provides a litmus test of the front-runners’ form, and Hamilton set a daunting standard with a stunning flying lap to edge out Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Besides reviving his quest for a fourth world title, the performance also took him closer to Michael Schumacher’s record of 68 poles, which he could yet surpass at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July.
The reason for Mercedes’ resurgence lies in the upgrades that they have brought here to stave off the threat of Ferrari. Under the watch of technical director James Allison, whom they prised from their arch-rivals, the Silver Arrows are the envy of the paddock once more, thanks to a revamped rear wing that promises to help restore their dominance.
Allison, who has shared in world titles at Ferrari and Renault, left his role at the Scuderia after the death of his wife, and has created a car with which Hamilton feels at one.
After his troubles in Sochi, where he finished fourth as team-mate Valtteri Bottas took victory, he looked a driver rejuvenated as he swept to another pole that left him just one behind his idol Ayrton Senna on the all-time list.
“It was a very intense qualifying,” he said. “We had to pull out every millisecond we could to take pole.
“The team have done an incredible job for these small increments, putting together a great package that keeps us in the battle with the Ferraris.”
The portents are auspicious, given that the pole-sitter in Barcelona has won the race in nine of the past 12 years. Hamilton was one of the exceptions last season, after an extraordinary first-lap collision with Nico Rosberg that took both drivers into the gravel.
That pitched him into what he said was a “massive low”, but he appears more comfortable alongside the understated Bottas as he seeks to become F1’s fifth quadruple champion, after Schumacher, Vettel, Juan Manuel Fangio and Alain Prost.
Adding to the tension was an early engine failure for Vettel. The German suffered a watersystem leak, forcing Ferrari to change the power unit, but what should be a three-hour repair job was completed in less than an two.
“Everyone helped out,” he said. “The mechanics were like bees hovering around the car.”
Vettel had been told to stop by his race engineer after a problem was detected. “Are you sure?” he asked, but Ferrari’s swift work enabled him to prevent a fifth consecutive Mercedes front-row lock-out here. He was still dismayed not to have usurped Hamilton, having followed a prodigiously quick second sector with a mistake at the final chicane. “I had it, I had it,” he shouted in exasperation. Bottas, third, was unimpressed with his contribution – “not good enough” – but can take comfort from how he slipstreamed past the Ferraris from the same grid position in Russia.
The most eye-catching display was by Fernando Alonso, who defied the unreliability of McLaren’s Honda engines to qualify in seventh. His teammate, Stoffel Vandoorne, could manage only 17th. Evidently Alonso’s preparations to compete in the Indianapolis 500 on May 28 have only enhanced his F1 racecraft. “It is a gift,” he said, grinning. “Maybe on the ovals in America I have learned how to go faster on the straights.”
Meanwhile, doubts continue to grow over the future of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, who are barely keeping track with the 125,000 race tickets they need to sell to cover their estimated £17 million fee for this year’s race, amid reports that the British Racing Drivers’ Club could activate a clause to break the contract to host F1 until 2026.