Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes stole a stunning victory in the Spanish Grand Prix from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. It was a tense and gripping battle befitting the closeness of the fight between Formula 1’s top teams this season.
A clever strategic move by the team followed by Hamilton attacking and passing Vettel put the Briton in control and he defended successfully to the end. Vettel had passed Hamilton off the start line to lead for the first half of the race but ended up out-flanked by their rivals.
Mercedes switched strategies, putting Hamilton on a long middle stint on the slower medium tyre, the idea being to attack Vettel at the end of the race when Hamilton would be on the soft tyre and the Ferrari on the medium.
They then bought themselves some time by delaying the first pit stop of Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas so he could hold up Vettel for a couple of laps, eventually, Vettel passed Bottas in a spectacular move and immediately started opening up a gap, however, that delay ultimately gavMercedesez the sniff they needed and Lewis pounced.
A race filled with drama and blistering entertainment by two of the games great teams and drivers.
Catch the latest article on the rivalry between these two mega stars.
Lewis Hamilton & Sebastian Vettel provide ‘a scrap between two of the greatest’ BBC
