Hamilton Passes Verstappen To Win In Spain

Calum Gill 16:41 09/05/2021

Lewis Hamilton made it back to back wins with victory in Spain, after passing Max Verstappen in the closing laps.

A great strategy call with 24 of the 66 laps to go saw Mercedes pit Hamilton from P2 onto another set of medium tyres. He dropped to 22.4 seconds behind Verstappen's Red Bull but managed to pull back the deficit, passing the Dutchman for the lead on lap 60.

Verstappen did bring it home in P2 after pitting for softs and claiming the point for fastest lap, ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the other Mercedes. Charles Leclerc drove a solid race to come home where he qualified in 4th place, while Sergio Perez gained three positions to finish in 5th in the other Red Bull. Daniel Ricciardo edged out Carlos Sainz for 6th place by less than a second, while Ricciardo's McLaren teammate Lando Norris finished in 8th place. Frenchmen Esteban Ocon & Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.

-Full weekend results

Repeat of Hungary 2019 for Red Bull 

Verstappen put himself in control of the race with a brave pass on Hamilton at the first corner, braking late and throwing his Red Bull inside the Mercedes, forcing the Briton to take evasive action to avoid contact. But the Dutchman was unable to shake Hamilton, who tracked him closely towards the first pit stops.

Mercedes were unable to pass Verstappen by stopping first because the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was just close enough to mean Hamilton would come out behind the Mexican if he stopped. That enabled Verstappen to make his stop first, and Mercedes decided to delay Hamilton's stop by four laps to give him a tyre advantage.

Hamilton rejoined 5.5 seconds behind the Red Bull but was on its tail within three laps. He stayed within a second of Verstappen for another nine laps, clearly faster but unable to pass on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult. Then, with 24 laps to go, Mercedes brought Hamilton in again for a new set of tyres, rejoining 22.4 seconds behind. F1's computers predicted that Hamilton would catch Verstappen on the last lap, but he was soon lapping nearly two seconds faster than the Red Bull.

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas cost Hamilton well over a second when the Briton caught him, despite the Finn being ordered by the team not to delay the other car. But once past Bottas, Hamilton caught Verstappen on lap 60, immediately sweeping around the outside of Verstappen at Turn One to take a superb team victory after a drive from the top drawer. 

The strategy call is a carbon copy of Hungary in 2019, where Red Bull were caught out by Mercedes pitting Hamilton one more time than Verstappen, onto fresher tyres, with Hamilton passing him in the closing laps after closing down a sizeable gap.

The rest of the field

Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin finished just outside the points in 11th, while Alfa-Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen brought his car home in 12th. The other Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel finished in 13th place, ahead of George Russell's Williams, who had been running in the points and on the fringes up until the final few laps. Antonio Giovinazzi in the sister Alfa-Romeo was 15th, and the other Williams of Nicholas Latifi was 16th. Fernando Alonso had a disappointing home race in the Alpine, dropping from 10th on the grid to 17th at the flag. The two Haas cars rounded out the finishing order, with Mick Schumacher ahead of Nikita Mazepin. Yuki Tsunoda, the only non-finisher, retired on lap 6 due to engine issues with his AlphaTauri.

2021 Spanish Grand Prix Classification