© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
By Carol M. Creasey
Sir Lewis Hamilton has won the Spanish Grand Prix on five occasions in the past, and this year he wanted to keep the momentum going, by fending off any attack from Red Bull.
However, during the first free practice session it was his team-mate Valtteri Bottas who topped the time sheets. Sir Lewis topped FP2, while he was second in FP3, right behind Max Verstappen. Once again, the times were close, and it was clear that qualifying was going to be hard to predict.
If Sir Lewis did get pole, it would be his 100th, a feat unmatched by any other driver. But Bottas and Verstappen both wanted pole for themselves, and it was a nail biting time for fans. By the time Q3 arrived, it looked like everything was going Verstappen’s way, but then Sir Lewis put in a banker lap which was fractionally faster than either Verstappen or Bottas’. They all made another attempt to improve, but none of them did, so it was 100th pole for Sir Lewis!
After his history making feat, Sir Lewis was lauded by his team, and all the commentators, however, when he was interviewed afterwards, he remained humble and grateful to Mercedes for giving him such a great car.
Once again Sir Lewis proved he never rests on his laurels, he always sets the bar even higher, and he seeks to improve on his performance, which is one of the reasons why he has seven world championships to his name. Whenever he misses out on pole, even if the gap is only a few thousandths of a second, he will say his qualifying was rubbish and he will strive to be better next time.
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This is unlike many other drivers, who will say they had a good lap, even if it fails to put them on pole. Sir Lewis is very self-critical, and this ruthless self-analysis has made him the best in the world for the last seven years.
When race day arrived there were tiny spots of rain at the start, but it made little difference. When the flag dropped Verstappen used the slipstream to overtake Sir Lewis, giving him a sharp nudge on the way. This could have ended his race, but luckily Sir Lewis’ car did not sustain any damage. So far Verstappen has challenged Sir Lewis with a clumsy move at every race, which at this point seems to be Verstappen’s driving style.
Sir Lewis stayed very close to Verstappen, sometimes less than a second behind, and he looked ready to attempt an overtake on lap 24, but then the Dutch driver went in for a pit stop. Sir Lewis was impeded by Nikita Mazepin, who was a lap behind, which meant that by the time Verstappen emerged, and Sir Lewis took his pit stop on lap 28, the gap between them had stretched to over five seconds.
The seven-time champion continued to shadow Verstappen over many laps, and then on lap 42 he went in for a fresh set of medium tyres. When he came out he was over 23 seconds behind the Dutch driver, and his job now was to hunt him down on fresher tyres.
He commenced by doing the fastest lap, and then started the hunt, passing Bottas on lap 53. The Finn was given team orders to move over, but he was not happy about it, so in the end Sir Lewis overtook him.
Sir Lewis continued to reel Verstappen in, and by lap 58 he was just three seconds behind. On lap 60, Sir Lewis struck, passing Verstappen for the lead of the race. Verstappen responded by pitting again to try for fastest lap, which he did get. He remained in second position with Bottas in third.
It was amazing to watch, the excitement mounting as the race progressed, and the disbelief that anyone could catch and pass their rival when running 23 seconds behind. But Sir Lewis is able to look after his tyres better than anyone, which was key today.
It has been an amazing weekend for Sir Lewis, reaching historic 100 pole positions on Saturday, and cementing that with a controlled win on Sunday. To add to this, he was voted Driver of the Day by F1 fans. He knows he will have to work hard this year to keep the Red Bulls at bay, and so far, with three wins out of four, he has made an excellent start.
Be sure to follow Carol on Twitter @eagertogo and visit her website www.carolmcreasey.com!
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