An overjoyed Lewis Hamilton has said he had no idea how the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix would play out, but was glad to finally claim a dominant victory.
Hamilton claimed his second consecutive win of the year from pole-position, beating his team-mate Valtteri Bottas by a staggering twenty seconds. The championship leader jumped ahead at the start of the race and was only briefly headed by Max Verstappen as the pit-stop strategies played out before the Brit regained a commanding lead.
“I’m really, really happy,” said Hamilton. “I had no idea how the race was going to play out. We got the qualifying right yesterday, but the temperatures were going up and down today, clouds were coming over and we didn’t know if it was going to rain or not.
“But I got a good start and after that the others didn’t have the pace to keep up with me. I was pulling away almost a second a lap and I was thinking “Yes, let’s keep this up!” – and it stayed that way for the rest of the race.”
The victory in Spain comes two weeks after Hamilton claimed a fortuitous victory in Azerbaijan where Bottas retired from the lead late on. For the Spanish Grand Prix however, Bottas followed Hamilton home to claim Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport‘s first one-two of the year.
“To get our first 1-2 of the season here is a really great result for the team,” Hamilton added. “Everyone’s worked so hard, we had a great pit stop and great strategy.
“I said that I wanted to come win the way that I won and when I was coming across the line I was just happy that I did as I planned to.
“The team have been working very hard to understand the tyres and how the car works, so I think it all came together this weekend.
“We definitely go to Monaco on a high note, but we know that we still have a lot of work to do. It’s really important that we all continue to push and work as hard as we have done during this first part of the season.”
