Having been well and truly outgunned in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix 2019 by teammate Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton hit back in emphatic style on race day to claim his third win of the season, as Mercedes stretched their current record of consecutive one-two finishes to an incredible five.
Click here to subscribe to our print edition!
After beating Bottas to the first corner, Hamilton led the race to net his third Spanish Grand Prix win in a row.
The Mercedes duo were joined on an identical podium to 2018 by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, with the Ferrari pair of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc fourth and fifth, Verstappen maintaining his record of having finished ahead of at least one Ferrari at every race this season.
Pierre Gasly was P6 in the second Red Bull, while a late-race Safety Car – after McLaren’s Lando Norris and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll clashed in the first corner sequence – set up a dramatic finish behind, with Kevin Magnussen eventually claiming a fine seventh place and his first points since Australia.
Haas teammate Romain Grosjean claimed his first point of the year by finishing P10, despite dropping from P8 in a dramatic final few laps after being passed by the McLaren of Carlos Sainz – who maintained his record of scoring at every Spanish Grand Prix of his career – and the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat, who finished P9.
MARIO ISOLA – HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
The safety car close to the end of the Spanish Grand Prix 2019 was the pivotal moment in the race regarding tyre strategy, effectively ensuring that everyone did a two-stopper and resetting the gaps so that there was a short sprint to the finish. From the start of the race, it seemed likely we would see a variety of one and two-stop strategies, with all three compounds in play. In the end, it probably would have been quite tricky to one-stop, as there was some degree of wear on the soft and medium at this very severe circuit regarding energy loadings. Now we remain in Barcelona for the in-season test on Tuesday and Wednesday when Ferrari and Racing Point will be fielding an additional car for us to test 2020 prototype tyres.
Related Articles