Spanish Grand Prix 2019
Mercedes’ perfect season continues. For the fifth race in a row, the two Silver Arrow drivers finished on the top two steps of the podium as they dominated the Spanish Grand Prix. This time, Lewis Hamilton took back top spot from team-mate Valtteri Bottas to pick up his third win of the season.
Meanwhile, there’s even more trouble for Ferrari. After all their scheming to upgrade their engine a couple of races earlier in Spain, the Prancing Horse were once again woefully off the pace in Barcelona as they failed to even grab a podium finish.
Ferrari’s loss was Red Bull’s gain as Max Verstappen stepped in to score his second top-three finish of the season.
Highlights of the game
For the third race in a row, Bottas got the better of Hamilton in qualifying. The Finn was unable to make that advantage count in China, where Hamilton quickly overtook him and strolled to a win. But Bottas was able to hold off his team-mate to get the impressive win in Azerbaijan.
But unfortunately for Bottas, Hamilton did a repeat of Shanghai in Spain as he once again started well and took over the race lead within the first lap.
Although, Hamilton did have some help from Sebastian Vettel. The Ferrari driver immediately produced Spanish Grand Prix 2019 highlights as tried to overtake Bottas on the outside heading into the first corner.
But in doing so, he gave Hamilton the opportunity to sneak up on his team-mate on the other side, which the defending champion took. After the race, Vettel himself owned up to the fact that he did Hamilton “a favour” with his move on Bottas.
Once ahead, it didn’t take Hamilton long to build his advantage over Bottas and the rest of the field.
Meanwhile, not only did Vettel fail to overtake the Mercedes, but he also dropped from third to fourth as Max Verstappen edged out in front. Vettel also picked up a flat spot on his tyre after going through the side of the road during his attempted overtake.
With Vettel struggling for pace due to his tyre problem, he began defending his fourth place from Charles Leclerc, who looked the faster of the two Ferraris. But with the German keeping his team-mate up, Verstappen was able to build his lead for third.
In lap 13, though, Ferrari finally ordered Vettel to let Leclerc through, which is a reversal from previous team orders this season. But despite being let through, Leclerc was unable to make up significant ground on Verstappen.
Vettel comes to pit and change tyres in lap 20, but a slow stop cost him some valuable places as he re-entered all the way down in tenth. Leclerc comes in six laps later as Ferrari are once again sloppy during the stop. And confusingly, Leclerc is on hard tyres as opposed to Vettel’s medium.
There are no such problems during Mercedes’ pit as both Hamilton and Bottas retain their one-two position after their first scheduled stops.
Thanks to his new tyres, Vettel finally begins to roll as he sets some fastest laps. And eventually, the team orders Leclerc to give way to the German once again. However, Vettel was also unable to gain enough ground on Verstappen in third.
Meanwhile, a safety car allows Hamilton to enter the pits and change his worn-out tyres. And once the race restarts, Hamilton bangs out some fastest laps as he just about secures victory.
Key Statistics
With the win, Hamilton has now won in Barcelona three years in a row, the first driver to do so since Michael Schumacher won four years on the bounce from 2001 to 2004.
Meanwhile, Mercedes have extended their record for most consecutive one-two finishes to start a season to five.
As for Ferrari, despite their recent impressive performances during pre-testing in Barcelona, they have now failed to finish in the top three in the race since 2017.
Max Verstappen, who started in fourth and finished in third, has kept up his impressive streak of not finishing lower than he started, which is now at 14 races.
What’s next?
Mercedes will now look to extend their amazing stretch of dominance this season in the Monaco Grand Prix on May 26. Given their incredible performance thus far, don’t be surprised to see the Spanish Grand Prix 2019 betting odds leaning heavily in the two Mercedes drivers’ favour once again.
Mercedes have won this race four out of the last six years, but only once by Hamilton. Nico Rosberg had a hat-trick of wins from 2013 to 2015.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo is the reigning champion at Monaco as he led from pole and fended off both Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Although, his SBOBET odds to repeat will likely be sky high as Mercedes continue to roll this season.
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