The Spanish Grand Prix looked set to be a genuine fight between Mercedes and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, but it turned into another routine Lewis Hamilton victory.
What happened to Red Bull’s challenge?
“Bring on the heat!” That was Toto Wolff’s message to rival team boss Christian Horner when they met under the podium following the Spanish Grand Prix.
Above them, Lewis Hamilton stood victorious on the top step, fresh from a crushing 24-second victory over Max Verstappen in the intense heat of the Spanish summer. Less than 24 hours earlier, Wolff had told journalists he was convinced the hot conditions would play into Red Bull’s hands over a race distance. Red Bull had looked quicker than Mercedes on heavy fuel on Friday and it fitted the narrative from the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix that the W11 has a genuine weakness in the heat.
But 16 laps in to the race, it was clear Verstappen’s pace was no match for Hamilton’s. The lead Mercedes continued to pull away as Verstappen became increasingly preoccupied with the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in his mirrors and the state of the tyres on his Red Bull. Midway through the race, Verstappen had to remind his pit wall to focus on his race rather than that of Hamilton’s, extinguishing any hope of a fight back in the final third of the race.
In truth, Mercedes was cruising. Something that became clear on Lap 63 when both Mercedes cars lapped two seconds faster than Verstappen as they fought over the fastest lap point. Credit should go to Red Bull for splitting the two Mercedes with an inferior car, but if anything that underlined the chasm in performance between Hamilton and Bottas this year. In qualifying the margin was just 0.049s between the Mercedes teammates, but in the race, as has so often been the case this year, Hamilton was in a different class.
The result means Hamilton has stretched his lead in the championship to 37 points over Verstappen and 43 points over Bottas. After just six races those numbers are huge and there is every indication they will get bigger over the coming weeks. Hope of a Red Bull championship challenge hung on replicating the conditions of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at enough races to allow Verstappen to catch up. But it is looking increasingly likely that that hot summer day in Silverstone was simply an anomaly in an otherwise dominant season for the reigning world champions.
Vettel frustrated, but back in the points
It was a welcome return to the points for Sebastian Vettel, who managed to finish seventh on the back off a very well managed one-stop strategy. He raced for 36 laps on the soft tyre and was able to go to the flag while most of his midfield rivals followed the more conventional two-stop strategy Pirelli had suggested was the quickest ahead of the race.
But during the race we were given more revealing insight into how much Vettel’s relationship with Ferrari has changed.
Having initially being told to push on those soft tyres, an instruction usually given before a call to pit for fresh tyres, Ferrari then told him it was considering going to the end of the race on those tyres – that strategy obviously requires a driver to be looking after his tyres, not burning through them.
Vettel’s response over the radio was: “Ah, f— sake! I asked you this before!”
While it can be stored in the vault of curious Ferrari strategy calls, fortunately the conflicting messages did not seem to have too much bearing on the final result.
Explaining his frustration, Vettel said: “It’s quite simple, we didn’t have anything to lose. We were P11 and trying to offset until the end of the race.
“We were catching the cars in front and then they pitted for their second stop, but I was not in a rush to catch them, managing my tyres, then I was told to push. Which I did, and then I was asked if I could make it to the end I said ‘well, you could have asked that a couple of laps before’, because I’d asked a couple of times what’s the target and how long we want to go, so I could look after my tyres. I said we’ll try to make it.”
Vettel also admitted he still has work to do before he fully understands his recent struggles with the Ferrari, saying his first stint was still a struggle. Sure, it was only seventh position, but given how uncomfortable it was watching an all-time great struggle as Vettel did over the course of two race weekends at Silverstone, the fact Vettel’s end result was positive is an encouraging sign.
Raikkonen the record breaker
There’s been lots of talk about the Michael Schumacher records Lewis Hamilton is inching closer towards, but Kimi Raikkonen claimed a spot in the history books in a different category this afternoon. No driver has completed more laps in an F1 car than the Finn — after completing lap 37, Kimi Raikkonen had raced a record 83,846 kilometers in F1. That’s more than two laps of the earth.
Of course, Raikkonen has repeatedly stressed how little he cares for these kind of records, but he’ll be getting more questions along similar lines at upcoming races. He is now three races away from matching Rubens Barichello’s record of 322 race starts.
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