Lewis Hamilton: “The start was decisive”

Lewis Hamilton can wear a big smile on the podium of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. The British Mercedes won his third victory of the season and took control of the world championship ahead of his teammate Valtteri Bottas, yet started from pole.

The major moment of the event took shape at the start when Hamilton showed himself to be better in the exercise than the Finn, visibly disturbed by a clutch problem. “When the lights turned green, my takeoff was quite good and we were very close until turn 1, believes the world champion.

I think the Ferrari was by our side at one point. So it was a great battle and a decisive moment in the race »

The old pilot McLaren also wanted to dedicate his victory to a young sick boy, who sent a message to the driver of the star brand this Sunday.

“He was my inspiration. He could have chosen any other driver, so for him, in the most difficult days, to send a message like that is really humbling and it was very appreciated. Sending you love, Harry. »

Mercedes changes strategy

Hamilton also praises the work accomplished by the Mercedes teams, with developments which seem to have further widened the gap between the W10s and the competition. Mercedes thus wins its fifth consecutive double since the start of the championship in Melbourne, Australia.

“It was an incredible day for the team, recognizes the winner of the day. We made an upgrade here and everyone worked hard to make this possible. I am very proud of everyone at the factory and grateful for their work. »

The world champions did not hesitate to change strategy during the race, switching to two stops when the opportunity presented itself. “Our plan at the start of the race was to try just one stop, explains Andrew Shovlin, engineering manager.

So, during the first stint, both drivers had to manage a lot. The cars behind seemed to have gone two stops, so we asked the drivers to accelerate to keep enough of a gap, but this started to worsen our own degradation.

So we simply had to pass the mediums until the end. When Verstappen came in on lap 44, a window opened to allow us to pass both drivers at two stops to reduce the risk of lacking tire performance at the end.

We had already stopped Valtteri and were in the process of bringing Lewis in when the safety car came out. From there it was pretty simple. »

Discover the full report and analysis of the Spanish Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Catalonia, in issue 2216 of AUTOweekly, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.