Lewis Hamilton has taken his eighth win at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, taking his first Grand Prix win for Ferrari as he beat his former teammate George Russell by nineteen and a half seconds to win the Barcelona – Catalunya Grand Prix. The seven-time champion closed the gap to the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, before overtaking him, but an engine failure led to his retirement in the closing stages.
Hamilton took advantage of an alternative strategy to go longer in a race, which became about tyre strategy. Mercedes appeared to have no answer for Ferrari after the mid-race VSC, which allowed Hamilton to surge ahead and build an advantage over Russell. He surpasses Michael Schumacher’s record of six wins at this circuit, the same circuit where the seven-time champion took his first win for Ferrari thirty years ago.
The VSC proved crucial in Hamilton’s race as it allowed him to do an unlikely three-stop race. The final stop saved him ten seconds and rejoin on new tyres, allowing him to pull away on the restart with twelve to go, then retain the lead at the final VSC in the closing stages.
He delivered a series of stunning laps to gradually increase his advantage over the Silver Arrows and claim his first win in nearly two years, cutting down Antonelli’s lead in the Standings at the same time.
There were three small ironies. Hamilton’s win was Ferrari’s first in Spain since 2013, when the man who delivered it was Alonso, whose retirement caused the VSC that delivered this next one to his old arch-rival. As well as his infamous race-ending collision with his other long-time rival, Nico Rosberg, on the opening lap, which in turn gave his 2021 title rival, Max Verstappen, his first win in 2016.
This race could define the season and see the seven-time champion launch a bid for an eighth as he is forty-one points behind Antonelli, who retired with five laps remaining. Mercedes has, from pre-season testing here six months ago, struggled a bit with the reliability of the power unit, despite their dominance of every race this season.
Hamilton, who has won his first race with Ferrari: “First I have to start and say a huge grazie to everyone here, my team here, Ferrari, everyone back at the factory, Fred for believing in me and bringing me to this team. I started out with a dream last year, which seemed almost impossible during my time last year, but we never gave up hope and the team just continued to lift me up.”
Russell speaking after finishing second, “Huge congrats to Lewis. I know hard he works, we spent a lot of years together at Mercedes, really pleased to see him back to the Lewis I remember. Tough day. Good to be back on the podium, good to have a clean race from my side. Ferrari were mighty impressive today and we need to keep pushing.
For the first time since Watkins Glenn in 1968, it was an all-British podium, as the current world champion, Lando Norris, finished third just over four seconds behind Russell. On what could be a momentous day
Russell was throughout the opening stages, once again outperformed by Antonelli, despite that happening in practice and qualifying, the Italian looked more competitive. No sooner had Antonelli moved into second place than luck turned against him, and the car ground to a halt between Turns Five and Six.
His retirement moved Norris into the final podium position. The world champion had been close behind Antonelli for much of the race, but not quite close enough to challenge.
Norris finished sixteen seconds ahead of Verstappen as the Red Bull managed to split the McLarens, finishing eighteen seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri. The Australian the final car on the lead lap with Isack Hadjar rounding out the top four teams.
Charles Leclerc was the other driver from the top four teams to retire during the closing stages with a steering issue, but was fifteenth in the classification and the final retirement on lap sixty-two.
Hadjar finished the race comfortably ahead of both Alpine’s, Pierre Gasly, thirty-one seconds behind his fellow Frenchman and ahead of his teammate Franco Colapinto by fourteen seconds. However, the Argentine driver is set to be investigated after the race for a yellow flag infringement.
The two Racing Bulls completed the points Liam Lawson finishing nearly six seconds ahead of teammate Arvid Lindblad.
Gabriel Bortoleto was a further lap down in eleventh as he finished the race just over a second ahead of Carlos Sainz, with Esteban Ocon thirty-one seconds ahead of Sergio Perez.
Despite their retirements, Leclerc, Antonelli and Ollie Bearman were classified fifteenth to seventeenth as they had all completed ninety per cent of the race. Alex Albon was unretired and was eight laps behind his rivals after pitting to fix a problem with his Williams.
Aston Martin endured a dismal day as both Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso failed to take the chequered flag, while Cadillac ended Valtteri Bottas’ race as a precaution. After running in the points early on, Nico Hulkenberg was also unable to finish the Grand Prix for Audi, and Ollie Bearman was a late retiree with Haas.
Related
- Barcelona – Catalunya GP – Qualifying Result
- BARCELONA – CATALUNYA GP – George Russell beats Lewis Hamilton to pole by half a tenth as the Ferrari splits the Mercedes
