Hamilton won back in Catalunya

It was thought that the Catalunya race would become Hamilton’s solo performance when the 100th Mercedes driver won the pole in F1 career. However, the fact that the Red Bull Verstappen racer surpassed his seniors right from the start made the race more attractive. But the tactical aging and the advantage of tires helped Hamilton and Mercedes reverse the stance. The British star thus won the 98th leg of his F1 career, without having to fall into five-year-lost competitions with his opponents on the track.

Catalunya’s victory is the third time Hamilton has won first place since the start of the season. Mercedes’ performance continues to show that the German team is still F1’s number one force, unlike the doubts in the pre-season test.

Early to get the leading position at Turn 1 after starting, it was thought that Red Bull and Verstappen would easily control the race on a narrow and relatively difficult track like Catalunya. But the excellent overtaking of the Dutch racer when braking late and forcing his seniors out of the optimal lane on Turn 1 is the only plus point of Verstappen compared to Hamilton in the Spanish race. After that, the old age and wisdom of Mercedes made Red Bull helpless to watch his opponent stand alone in the second half of the race.

Verstappen tried to get away from Hamilton in the first few rounds, but this idea was soon ruined when Yuki Tsunoda had to stop on the side of the road in round 7, making safe cars soon deployed. After the safe car pulled out of the track, Verstappen could not cut Hamilton’s tail. The distance between the two cars gradually narrowed.

After two-thirds of laps – the optimal timing for the first pit entry, Hamilton didn’t risk changing his tires in front of his opponent, fearing that he would fall behind and be hindered by Red Bull’s second driver – Sergio Perez.

So Verstappen entered the pit first in round 24 when the distance between the two cars was less than 1 second. However, in this tire change, the Dutch driver lost about 1 second more than normal. Mercedes decided to let Hamilton continue to use the set of tires four more rounds to give advantage for the end of the race.

When he returned to the track after switching to an average tire in the 28th round, Hamilton was 5.5 seconds behind Verstappen, but this gap was soon shortened. After just over three laps, Mercedes’ drivers were less than a second behind their rivals. Without risking a duel with a hot opponent, Hamilton maintained the distance in the next rounds before deciding to enter the second pit in round 42.

At this time, the British driver used the new average tire, the distance between the two cars was extended to more than 22 seconds. The computer assistant judged Hamilton’s chances of overtaking as difficult and predicted Mercedes’ drivers could only catch up with Verstappen in the last lap. However, the world champions made all the theoretical estimates reversed when he constantly shortened the distance, on average he ran faster than Verstappen by 1-2 seconds per lap.

By the 60th round, Hamilton caught up with Red Bull’s racer, although it took him some time trying to outdo teammate Bottas.

Bottas lost his chance to win when he was beaten by Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in the first round and was stuck behind the Monaco racer for more than 20 rounds. After replacing the tire, Bottas surpassed his opponent and continued to raise hopes of attacking Verstappen’s second place but failed.

The Finnish racer was informed by Mercedes instructors that he could catch up with Verstappen at the end of the race, and asked Bottas not to stop Hamilton from taking over but Bottas seemed to ignore the home team’s demands. postponed Hamilton for almost the entire 52nd round before allowing the British rider to pass on Turn 10. Despite obstacles from his teammates, the British driver soon caught up and easily defeated Verstappen at the end of the straight line before to Turn 1 thanks to the remarkable advantage of the new tire.

Witnessing Mercedes’ intentions, but Red Bull was powerless in the late stage due to losing an average tire to the opponent. Although the Austrian team called Verstappen for a second tire change right after Hamilton, they also ran the risk of being drastically hindered by Bottas. By the 53rd round, when Hamilton had significantly shortened the distance with Verstappen, Mercedes pulled Bottas out of the track for a second tire change. Unable to stop Hamilton’s advance, Verstappen returned to pit a second time to try to score a point when setting up the final fastest-lap.

Verstappen admits Red Bull was powerless against Mercedes. “With soft tires, Hamilton has a better speed than me, and after switching to medium tires, the difference becomes bigger. We can’t do much. When they change the tires a second time, I understand.” it was all over, and I could see Lewis getting closer and closer and I was in a ‘fish on the cutting board’ situation.

Hamilton was pleased with the home team’s strategy: “I feel great after winning today. I feel like we can go on to win more. The start was dramatic. Then the game was on. Race is like hunting. I’ve been sticking to him for so long and I don’t think I’ll be able to hold the tires until the end of the race, but still succeed in the end. flag”.

“Our plan from the start was to stockpile two new sets of medium tires for a two-pit strategy. Although in theory the 1-pit strategy is faster, experience has helped us understand that it is a very tactic. Hard to do. Today’s win is great, “added the British driver.

Spanish Grand Prix results

Th self	Racer	Team	Location start	Number of tire changes	Fastest personal lap	Achievements	Point
first	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	first	2	1: 20,665	1 hour 33 minutes 7,680 seconds	25
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	2	2	1: 18,149	+15,841 seconds	19
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	3	2	1: 19,430	+26,610	15
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	4	2	1: 20,459	+54,616	twelfth
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	8	2	1: 19,483	+63,671	ten
6	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	7	2	1: 21,853	+73,768	8
7	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	6	2	1: 21,568	+74,670	6
8	Lando Norris	McLaren	9	2	1: 21,279	+1 round	4
9	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	5	first	1: 23,311	+1 round	2
ten	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	twelfth	2	1: 21,375	+1 round	first
11	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	11	2	1: 22,607	+1 round
twelfth	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	17	first	1: 22,868	+1 round
13	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	13	2	1: 22,820	+1 round
14	George Russell	Williams	15	2	1: 23,208	+1 round
15	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	14	2	1: 22,802	+1 round
16	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	19	3	1: 22,905	+1 round
17	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	ten	2	1: 21,182	+1 round
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	18	2	1: 22,637	+2 rounds
19	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	20	2	1: 24,040	+2 rounds
20	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	16		1: 24,825	Unfinished race in round 7

+) Fastest-lap: 1 minute 18,149 seconds due Max Verstappen (Red Bull) made up at round 62.

Driver’s scorecard after leg 4

Order	Racer	Team	Point
first	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	ninety four
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	80
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	47
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	41
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	40
6	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	32
7	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	24
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	20
9	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	ten
ten	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	8
11	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	5
twelfth	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	5
13	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	2
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo
15	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo
16	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin
17	George Russell	Williams
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas

Team scoreboard after leg 4

Order	Race team	Point
first	Mercedes	141
2	Red Bull	112
3	McLaren	65
4	Ferrari	60
5	Alpine	16
6	AlphaTauri	ten
7	Aston Martin	5
8	Alfa Romeo
9	Williams
ten	Haas

Minh Phuong