Hamilton wins Spanish GP ahead of Verstappen
MONTMELÓ, Spain (AP) — At least Max Verstappen made Mercedes work for it.
Slower from the start, Lewis Hamilton needed his team to out-strategize its Red Bull rivals to maintain his dominance of the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen got a great jump in his Red Bull from second on the grid to beat the pole-sitting Hamilton to the first curve and take the early lead.
But Mercedes’ use of two pit stops to give Hamilton fresher tires down the final stretch paid off and allowed him to overtake the Dutchman with six laps remaining.
“I am beginning to love this battle we are having,” Hamilton said. “Red Bull has started incredibly strong. With Max, they have a championship-winning car. We have to bring our A-game every week.”
Hamilton followed his 100th career pole on Saturday by taking his 98th career win. He also tied Michael Schumacher’s mark of six victories at the Spanish Grand Prix, including the last five in a row.
After four races, Hamilton increased his lead to 14 points over Verstappen, who grabbed a bonus point for the fastest lap after switching his tires late having already lost the lead.
Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas steered his Mercedes to a third-place finish in another ho-hum performance from the Finn, who at one point was told by his team to not slow Hamilton down when he was chasing the lead.
Verstappen could not have hoped for a better start from second on the grid.
He beat Hamilton off the starting line, recovering the scarce meters that separated them on the grid down the first straight. They entered the first curve side-by-side and appeared to graze one another before Hamilton backed off, as Verstappen pulled away.
“As I went into turn one, I just gave Max as much space as I could. This is a race, not a sprint. I always have my mind on the long game,” Hamilton said. “As soon as I got past turn one, I switched into a different mode.”
Mercedes’ superior tire strategy kicked in on lap 25 when Verstappen came in to swap his soft tires for the more durable mediums. Hamilton stayed out to take the lead for three laps before he ceded it back to Verstappen when he had to change his tires to mediums as well.
Even though Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said before the race that he expected to make one pit stop, seeing Verstappen holding his lead must have changed his mind. Hamilton came in for a second time on lap 43 for another new set of tires.
When Hamilton got back on the track he asked his team “how far have I got to catch up?”
He was told: “Twenty-two seconds We’ve done it before.”
Mercedes was right. Verstappen was unable to put up a fight when Hamilton caught and overtook him on the outside of a turn.
“I was hunting …. It was a long way to come back from, 20-odd seconds back. But it was a good gamble,” Hamilton said.
Verstappen was left wondering what more he could do.
“Too slow, that is how you sum it up,” said a disheartened Verstappen. “Even if we had gone for an early second stop, I don’t think we would have caught Lewis.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth, followed by Sergio Pérez in the other Red Bull.
Daniel Ricciardo was sixth for McLaren. Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari was seventh, followed by McLaren’s Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon in an Alpine and Pierre Gasly for Alpha Tauri rounding out the top ten.
Health restrictions limited spectators for Sunday’s race to one thousand locals who are members of the circuit. In 2019, 90,000 fans attended.
“There are a thousand here, but we know there are hundreds of thousands watching from home and we hope we can have them back soon,” said Spaniard Fernando Alonso after saluting the smattering of spectators in his tribute.
Alonso finished a disappointing 17th in his Alpine.
The race was incident-free except for a safety car on lap seven when Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri came to a stop on the edge of the track and had to be lifted off by a crane.
Next up, the Monaco GP in two weeks.
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