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Lewis Hamilton had a rollercoaster of a race in Barcelona. After starting the race in P6, the Mercedes driver emerged at the back of the field after a collision with Kevin Magnussen. In a shocking turn of events, the seven-time world champion suggested to his race engineer, Peter Bonnington, that the team should just retire the car and save the engine's mileage instead.
The Briton's race engineer resisted and, as a result, he put his head down and got to work. He then drove a great recovery drive through the field and ultimately finished the Spanish GP in P5.
Reflecting on this, former F1 world champion Damon Hill called the entire proceedings the perfect roller coaster and called the world champion's performance in Barcelona "stunning." He said:
“It’s the [Lewis] Hamilton emotional rollercoaster, isn’t it? It’s just amazing how he just thinks ‘oh no it’s no good’. But that was a stunning performance and it was a champion’s drive right through from nowhere. They gave him the equipment to do it as well. I thought it was stunning.”
Hill was asked after the race whether Mercedes' performance at the Spanish GP was an indicator that the team would now be a factor in the championship. He emphatically agreed and said that the German team had been trying to get its house in order for a while, but now that it had made strides with its car, it could finally start pushing.
He said:
“I think definitely, they showed they had the pace this weekend. They’ve only just started to whittle and fettle it into perfection. There are seeds of hope there.”
Hopefully, Mercedes can hold on to its strong form in Monaco as well.
Lewis Hamilton's teammate: No reason why we can’t claw this back
Lewis Hamilton's teammate George Russell was able to secure his second podium finish of the season. The young Mercedes driver was extremely happy with the team's progress and claimed that the German team had halved the gap to the frontrunners as compared to the rest of the grid.
He said:
“I think we have probably halved the gap to those front runners, compared to the rest of the season. And I think we know there’s probably more performance to find. It’s been a season of problem-solving opposed to trying to find more performance and bring more performance to the car.”
He went on to say:
“And I think we’ve now finally solved our issue. And we can now focus on bringing more performance. So yeah, we’re six races behind but there’s no reason why we can’t claw this back.”
Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have shared positive feedback about the weekend at Barcelona. It remains to be seen how much of the current deficit the team will be able to reduce in the upcoming races.
