This afternoon saw the Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1 Team achieving a 1-2 race finish at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya, with Nico Rosberg taking his first victory of the 2015 season (and the ninth of his F1 career to date) with a controlled and dominant drive from pole position and only lost the lead when he had to pit for new tyres.
Meanwhile, his team mate Lewis Hamilton recovered after having a poor start from second place to clinch the 75th podium of his Grand Prix career with second place after two brilliant stints with an ambitious three stop strategy. But Hamilton still leads Rosberg in the Drivers’ World Championship by 20 points, with the team still leading the Scuderia Ferrari by 70 points in the Constructors’ Championship.
Rosberg after the race this afternoon has stated that he has had the perfect weekend in Barcelona, with the team and the car performing as well as it could be and felt that he could control his pace and performance in the race without any danger from his rivals and is looking forward to his home race in Monaco in two weeks time
“We had a perfect weekend here in Spain. We have a fantastic car and everybody did a really great job in the break, so thanks to the team for everything,” said Rosberg.
“My start was great for the first time this season. From there I was able to control the pace and I never felt in danger throughout the whole race. I’m so happy about this win. It’s still early days in the season so it’s good to close the points gap to Lewis. I will continue to push hard – starting with a home race for me in Monaco!
Meanwhile his team mate Hamilton believes that his poor start was as a result of too much wheelspin and this hindered his opportunity to pass during the race. However, his three stop strategy did in the end pay off for him and Hamilton believes that this helped him get past Sebastian Vettel in a weekend that could be best described as damage limitation for himself and the team.
“I got off to a poor start with too much wheel spin and had to fight hard just to keep third. From there it was always going to be tough as it’s difficult to run right behind another car here and even tougher to pass,” said Hamilton. “I managed to stay close enough to Seb before the first stops but unfortunately we lost a bit of time there.
“In the end, we went for a three stop strategy to try something different. That call was made quite early on as it was clear it wouldn’t have worked to stay out for that long and, again, passing on track was almost impossible.
“Luckily we had the pace to make it work. Nico was then 22 seconds ahead with 15 laps to go which was a big gap. I pushed really hard to close up until about 6 laps from the end but I was only gaining about a second per lap which wasn’t enough. So, damage limitation on a difficult weekend for me. But I’m grateful that I could score some good points for the team. “
