@LewisHamilton out-foxes @Max33Verstappen to take #SpanishGP victory. #F1

Lewis Hamilton claimed his 98^th-career victory at the Spanish GP after two strategies worked to perfection by the Mercedes crew to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen with a late charge and pass.

The two leaders came very close to tangling at the opening corner, with Verstappen making an aggressive pass to get ahead of the Briton, which forced the Silver Arrows to make two courageous strategy calls to get Hamilton back into a position to take his sixth Spanish GP victory.

When the 66 lap Spanish GP began, Verstappen looked to have a faster getaway than pole-sitter Hamilton, but the Dutchman tucked behind the Mercedes as it shot up to speed.

Verstappen then took the inside line for turn one and strongly held onto take the racing line through the second corner, which meant the two leaders came very close to colliding – Hamilton backed out and the tangle was avoided by the slightest of differences.

Bottas followed the race leaders through the first two turns, but as he trailed behind his Mercedes team-mate Hamilton going into the third corner, he was overtaken by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who went around the outside of the Finn – mimicking Fernando Alonso’s similar move at the start of the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

Leclerc pushing his way to third meant the top two runners easy began to charge away in the early stages of the Grand Prix, with Verstappen and Hamilton lapping in the 1:23’s bracket.

Verstappen was able to pull clear to almost two seconds before Hamilton had just begun to fight back when the race was stabilised due to the deployment of the safety car on the eighth tour so Yuki Tsunoda’s AT02 racer could be recovered from the outside of the revised turn ten – the AlphaTauri suffered a loss of power on Tsunoda as he reached the sweeping left-hander.

When the race went back to green on the 11^th tour, Verstappen dropped Hamilton exiting the last chicane and weaved across the main straight to try and break the slipstream from the Mercedes behind, which was in any case close to the following Ferrari of Leclerc.

As DRS assistance was disable for a couple of laps after the race restart, Hamilton could not get close to the Red Bull whilst running just under a second adrift and Verstappen was able to increase his lead above the crucial one-second gap when DRS was activated.

Just like the start, Verstappen and Hamilton rapidly moved clear from Leclerc and Bottas – again running in the low 1:23’s that the rest of the field could not match.

As the Grand Prix passed it’s first third, Hamilton started to put Verstappen under pressure, who stopped on lap 24 for a set of C2 yellow side-walled mediums – but had to endure a 4.2 second stop as the Red Bull’s new left-rear tyre was still coming out of the garage when the Dutchman reached his pit-box.

But Mercedes did not immediately react to Red Bull by leaving Hamilton out – Team Boss Toto Wolff complained to FIA Race Director Michael Masi about Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin holding up Hamilton on the following lap that Verstappen pitted.

Hamilton remained out for another three tours before he came in to put on the medium rubber, with Leclerc following suit behind him and emerged well adrift of Bottas, who stopped a lap before Verstappen.

Verstappen comfortably reclaimed the lead with Hamilton pitting and had a 5.5 second advantage at the end of the Briton’s out-lap.

But the Mercedes drivers’ tyre offset meant he could run at a much faster pace – with the reigning World Champion eating into Verstappen’s gap by around 1.5 seconds per tour as he put in a string of laps, hovering into the low-mid 1:21’s.

By the beginning of the 34^th tour, he was only a second behind the leader and continued to reel him in – with Mercedes telling Bottas that his pace in third place was even good enough to catch Verstappen at the end.

In the following stage of the Grand Prix, Hamilton kept going in-and-out of DRS range in the battle with Verstappen but was not able to get close to the leader, who lifted his speed significantly to move into the 1:21’s when Hamilton reached the crucial one-second mark.

With the gap at the front stable, Mercedes opted for an aggressive call to bring Hamilton in once more at the end of the 42^nd lap for another set of medium compounds – which were used earlier in the weekend.

At the end of Hamilton’s out-lap, the Briton had to chase down a 22 second gap, with Red Bull deciding to leave Verstappen out on a one-stop strategy to the end as he had no medium tyres left heading into the Grand Prix.

Hamilton again ate into Verstappen’s lead – continuously posting fastest lap times and running more than 1.5 seconds quicker than the Dutchman – but Hamilton did appear to lose some time passing Mercedes team-mate Bottas just the final 15 tours approached, with the second F1 W12 ordered not to hold up the other, but Hamilton still needed to make the critical but close-to-comfortable overtake into the revised turn ten on the 53^rd lap.

But once Hamilton was clear from the Finn, he continued to hunt-down Verstappen with a series of fastest laps and reached the race leader again on lap 59.

As they ran down the main straight at the beginning of the next tour, Verstappen weaved once more to break the slipstream, but Hamilton’s pace was much better with DRS assistance, as the Briton darted ahead on the outside line and swept back into the lead at the same spot, he lost it on lap one.

Red Bull immediately then pitted Verstappen for a final stop to chase the fastest lap bonus point – following what Mercedes already planned to take with Bottas.

Hamilton crossed the line to claim the Spanish GP victory by 15.841 seconds, with Verstappen managing to take the bonus point on offer – posting a 1:18.149.

Leclerc came home a quiet fourth – Bottas had to get by the Ferrari with DRS assistance in the closing stages of the Grand Prix after the Finn’s late final stop – well clear of Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez, who finished fifth after winning a long battle with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Home favourite Carlos Sainz ended the race in seventh place for Ferrari and in-front of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who received a black-and-white flag for an aggressive late move to defend against the Spaniard into the first corner as the race reached its last quarter.

Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon fell from fifth on the grid at the start and reached the chequered flag in ninth place, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who came out on top after an intense battle with the pack outside the top ten fighting for the final point on offer – which was at that period headed by the other Alpine of Fernando Alonso, who wound finishing a low 17^th – in the final tours.

Gasly was given a five-second time penalty at his initial stop for lining up too far over his grid stop for the beginning of the race.

Aston Martin pairing Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel were 11^th and 13^th respectively with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen splitting the pairing in-between.

Williams Racing’s George Russell and Nicholas Latifi finished 14^th and 16^th respectively as Alfa’s Antonio Giovinazzi came home 15^th.

The Haas F1 Team duo of Mick Schumacher and Mazepin brought up the rear.

2021 Spanish GP – The Top Three

Spanish GP Winner – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 E Performance:

“I feel great after this, I feel like I could go again! I was hunting, I was so close so I wasn’t sure I could make the tyres last [in the dirty air] so it was a gamble but a great strategy by the team. Remarkable job by everyone in this team and yeah, what a day!”

2^nd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B:

“When they went for another stop, I knew it was over – I was already struggling with the tyres. They had more pace in their car, even if we’d gone for that second stop, I’m not sure… I did everything I could. We are not where we want to be.”

3^rd Place – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W12 E Performance:

“I lost the place to Charles [Leclerc] in Turn 3, I was stuck behind him and it compromised my race as otherwise, I had good pace. I scored good points but not perfect points.”

Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio De Espana 2021 Race Results Classification (66 Laps)

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1086/spain/race-result.html

You can see the full Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship standings here at the link: 2021 F1 World Championship Standings

Round five of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the streets of Monaco for the Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2021 from May 20-23.

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