After not one but two British GPs, the F1 teams were back in action for a third consecutive weekend. This time, they were in Spain for the FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2020. It was Hamilton who walked away from the weekend with another career win under his belt.
At the start of the race, Lewis Hamilton had a good start from pole position. Alongside on the front row, Valtteri Bottas had an average start. Max Verstappen got by on the run down to the first corner and Lance Stroll dove up the inside of the first corner from the third row of the grid. The Racing Point driver nearly made contact with Bottas in the first corner.
Bottas retook the position from Stroll a few laps later, but it was not as easy as he would have liked, seeing as the Racing Point is remarkably similar to last year’s championship winning car.
Roughly a quarter of the way into the race distance, Verstappen began to complain over the team radio about the quality of his Pirelli soft tyres. He also began to lose time to the leading Mercedes as the gap was stretched to 6 seconds.
The first of the Red Bull cars to pit was Alexander Albon. He came into the pit lane on lap 18 for a set of hard tyres. The drivers didn’t have good things to say about the hard compound tyres earlier in the weekend. The tyres were slower, had less grip and didn’t last that much longer than the mediums.
Verstappen was getting quite angry at the team for not pitting him new tyres, arguing with his engineer over the team radio. On lap 22, the team finally called him in for a new set of medium tyres. The stop was lightning fast (1.9s) and helped him to, critically, come out ahead of the two Racing Points.
Mercedes responded to Verstappen’s undercut two laps later, double stacking their drivers for medium tyres. Bottas rejoined the race behind Verstappen, despite Hamilton’s pit stop being more than a second slower due to an issue with the rear tyre.
At half distance, Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc put on a good show while battling for P10. Norris was able to fend off Leclerc. The battle ended when Leclerc tried an overtaking move around the outside of the tight turn 10, but ran out of space and was forced to go wide over the kerbs.
Eventually, Leclerc spun in the final chicane. It was potentially caused by an engine failure that locked the rear axle. He was able to get the car restarted at the back of the field, but he pulled into the pit lane to retire the car.
Dark clouds could now be seen around the circuit, introducing a threat of rain late in the race. The rain was estimated to start around lap 50.
On lap 42, Verstappen made his second pit stop for a new set of medium compound tyres.
With the threat of rain still present, but time running out, Bottas responded Verstappen’s earlier pit stop. He took the soft compound tyres on lap 49. Hamilton was called into the pit lane the following lap, but Hamilton told him team on the radio that he didn’t want the soft tyres. The team delayed his pit stop for another lap to get the medium tyres ready for Hamilton’s car. He pitted on lap 51, retaining his race lead.
Late in the race, Vettel asked his team what they wanted him to do in terms of strategy. The team didn’t respond for many laps. They finally asked him to take his old soft tyres until the end of the race. Vettel was clearly frustrated with his team, as it appears he was during the earlier sessions in the weekend, as the pair goes through an increasingly bitter divorce. Vettel agreed to keep the tyres to the end, saying that they have “nothing to lose”.
Sergio Perez was given a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags when being lapped by Hamilton down the main straight. Daniil Kvyat was given the same penalty for a similar infraction.
On the penultimate lap, Bottas dove into the pit lane to put on a set of fresh medium compound tyres, despite already holding the fastest lap of the race.
Hamilton extended his lead in the World Drivers’ Championship after taking the top of the podium. Verstappen split the potential Mercedes 1-2, taking P2 with Bottas in P3.
Sebastian Vettel won the Driver of the Day, having been able to fend off other drivers to maintain P7 on his old soft tyres in the one stop strategy.
After three consecutive weekends of racing, the teams and drivers and other staff responsible for bringing fans some entertainment have earned themselves a break. Racing will resume in two week’s time in Belgium on the weekend of August 30.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
