Formula 1

Hamilton wins the Spanish Grand Prix with a surprise strategical move

4 Mins read
Credit: LAT Images/Mercedes-Benz Archive

Lewis Hamilton had a hard fought win at the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix. Hamilton’s ninety-eighth win of his career and the third win of the season saw the Briton extending his lead over Max Verstappen to fourteen points in the drivers’ championship.

Valtteri Bottas finished in third position ahead of Charles Leclerc. Sergio Pérez completed the top 5 positions of a sedate race in Barcelona.

The race started under slightly overcast skies and cool conditions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya circuit in Spain. Lewis Hamilton started in pole position for the 100th time in his career. The championship leader had the formidable Max Verstappen to contend with on the first row.

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc started on the second row. Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz lined up behind them. Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Pérez, Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso started at the sharp end of the grid.

The hardest tyres in the Pirelli range of tyres has been designated for the race – white-striped hard compound tyres (C1), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C2), red-striped soft compound tyres (C3) All the drivers in the top ten positions of the grid started on the soft compound tyres.

Verstappen got a great start and led Hamilton into Turn1. Leclerc swept around Bottas at Turn 3 to take third-place. Ricciardo and Pérez gained two places to take fifth and sixth position respectively.

The order at the end of the first lap was Vestappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, Bottas, Ricciardo, Pérez, Ocon, Sainz, Norris, Alonso, Lance Stroll, and Sebastian Vettel.

By the end of the first lap, Verstappen had a 1.5 seconds advantage over Hamilton. Gasly was given a 5-second penalty for being out of position at the start.

On lap 8, Yuki Tsunoda lost power and stopped at the side of the track and the Safety Car (SC) was deployed. Antonio Giovinazzi had a long pitstop as he pitted under the Safety Car. The Williams Racing team double stacked both their drivers, George Russell and Nicholas Latifi.

The Safety Car period ended on lap 10. Verstappen had a good restart to lead the pack. Stroll took tenth position from Alonso. Hamilton was quickly within DRS-range of Verstappen.

On lap 19, Gasly pitted and served his 5-second time penalty. At the end of lap 20, Verstappen had a 1.3 seconds advantage over Hamilton. Bottas was still stuck behind Leclerc in fourth position.

On lap 22, both Alonso and Vettel pitted for the medium compound tyres and rejoined in seventeenth and nineteenth positions respectively. Alonso quickly got past Nikita Mazepin to take sixteenth position.

On lap 23, Sainz pitted and rejoined in thirteenth position. On lap 24, Bottas pitted and rejoined in sixth position behind Pérez.

On the next lap, race leader Verstappen pitted but had a slow pitstop where he was stationary for 4.2 seconds and rejoined in fifth position behind team-mate Pérez.

On lap 28, Pérez pitted and rejoined in eighth position behind Russell. On the same lap Hamilton pitted and rejoined behind Verstappen in second position over six seconds behind him.

Bottas was able to undercut Leclerc to take third position. At the end of the first set of pitstops the order was Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas, Leclerc, Ricciardo, Pérez, Sainz, Kimi Räikkönen, Ocon and Norris.

Räikkönen was the only driver who had not made a pit stop. Hamilton was pumping in fastest laps and was catching Verstappen quickly. Behind them, Pérez was hunting down Ricciardo for fifth position.

By lap 34, Hamilton was within DRS-range of Verstappen. On lap 39, Räikkönen finally pitted and rejoined in seventeenth position.

On lap 43, Hamilton pitted for the medium compound tyres and rejoined in third position behind Bottas. Hamilton was over 23 seconds behind Verstappen. The Mercedes team had pulled a surprise move on the Red Bull Racing team.

Pérez overtook Ricciardo for fifth position. On lap 47, Ricciardo and Sainz pitted and rejoined in eighth and ninth positions respectively.

By lap 48, Hamilton had cut the lead to 16.2 seconds With 16 laps to go, Hamilton was twelve seconds behind Verstappen. The hunt was on.

On lap 53, Hamilton overtook Bottas for second position. Ricciardo and Sainz on fresh tyres took sixth and seventh position.

On lap 54, Bottas piited for soft compound tyres and rejoined in fourth position 4.5 seconds behind Leclerc. With ten laps to go, Hamilton was 5.225 seconds behind Verstappen.  On lap 57, Bottas overtook Leclerc for third position. By lap 58, Hamilton was less than 3 seconds behind Verstappen. On lap 58, Pérez pitted and rejoined in fifth position. On lap 59, Leclerc pitted and rejoined in fourth position.

On lap 59, Hamilton was in DRS-range of Verstappen. On lap 60, Hamilton swept past Verstappen to take the lead of the race.

On lap 61, Verstappen pitted from second position and rejoined in front of Bottas. Two laps later, Vertsappen took the point for the fastest lap.

Hamilton finished over 15 secs ahead of Verstappen with the master-stroke in strategy executed by the Silver Arrows. Verstappen finished in second position with the additional point for fastest lap.

Bottas finished where he started in third position. Leclerc had another solid race to finish in fourth position.

Pérez  recovered to finish in fifth position. Ricciardo finished ahead of his McLaren team-mate Norris in sixth position. Norris finished in eighth position.

Sainz clinched a double-points finish for the Scuderia Ferrai team as he finished in seventh position. Ocon finished in ninth position. Gasly with a late charge through the field clinched the final solitary point with tenth position.

The next race is the Monaco Grand Prix in two weeks time (May 21 -23 2021).

2021 Spanish Grand Prix Race Results:

PosNoDriverNatl.TeamTime/RetiredLapsPTS
144Lewis HamiltonGBRMercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team1:33:07.6806625
233Max VerstappenNEDRed Bull Racing+15.841s6619
377Valtteri BottasFINMercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team+26.610s6615
416Charles LeclercMONScuderia Ferrari+54.616s6612
511Sergio PerezMEXRed Bull Racing+63.671s6610
63Daniel RicciardoAUSMcLaren F1 Team+73.768s668
755Carlos SainzESPScuderia Ferrari+74.670s666
84Lando NorrisGBRMcLaren F1 Team+1 lap654
931Esteban OconFRAAlpine F1 Team+1 lap652
1010Pierre GaslyFRAScuderia AlphaTauri Honda+1 lap651
1118Lance StrollCANAston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team+1 lap650
127Kimi RäikkönenFINAlfa Romeo Racing ORLEN+1 lap650
135Sebastian VettelGERAston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team+1 lap650
1463George RussellGBRWilliams Racing+1 lap650
1599Antonio GiovinazziITAAlfa Romeo Racing ORLEN+1 lap650
166Nicholas LatifiCANWilliams Racing+1 lap650
1714Fernando AlonsoESPAlpine F1 Team+1 lap650
1847Mick SchumacherGERUralkali Haas F1 Team+2 laps640
199Nikita MazepinRAFUralkali Haas F1 Team+2 laps640
NC22Yuki TsunodaJAPScuderia AlphaTauri HondaDNF60
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Avid Formula 1 and Motorsport fan for a very long time. Love researching and writing about F1. An Engineer by profession. All-round sports nut
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