In 1988 McLaren Honda’s combination with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna won all but one of the sixteen race campaign. Can Mercedes beat that haul with their current car and driver lineup? Can Lewis Hamilton beat Sebastian Vettel’s nine wins in a row?
What a race, or at least what a second half of the race. I hate to start with I told you so, but if you have read my article “Looking Ahead To The Spanish Grand Prix” you already know I predicted a Hamilton win.
With the Silver arrows once again locking out the front row you could have easily have predicted a one-two. But this really is only half the story, once again as in Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton took the lead and held it. Once again, the Mercedes team split the strategy with the two halves of the team working independently to bring their man home unto victory. Both drivers having started on the medium tyre and being so close in lap times Nico Rosberg’s only chance was to counter Hamilton’s tyre choice; Hamilton stopped on lap 19 and stayed on the medium compound tyre. Rosberg, having stayed out 3 laps longer switched to the harder, slower tyre.
Lewis was immediately told over the radio “you need to pull out another four seconds (six in total) gap to Rosberg” The other side of the garage counters telling Rosberg “you need to close the gap to two seconds” The gap neither closed sufficiently to help Rosberg or extended to Hamilton’s advantage.
We had to wait for the next round of pit stops for the race to really catch fire. With Hamilton now on the slower, harder tyre it was Rosberg’s chance to hunt Hamilton down on the softer faster medium tyre. The gap ebbed and flowed as back markers were passed,
Hamilton becoming more and more agitated as Rosberg closed in. There had already been comments over the radio bemoaning the car’s handling from Hamilton, to which the Englishman barked over the radio: “No more feedback guys”.
With two laps remaining the gap is under a second, but Rosberg left it too late and Hamilton took his fourth victory in a row, his 26th of his career, and with it the lead in the Championship.
Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull finishes the race in third almost 49 seconds behind the eventual winner.
The dominant Mercedes have won all five races so far this season. Further back Sebastian Vettel completes an impressive performance. Starting from fourteenth place on the grid and climbing to fourth, overtaking the two battling Ferraris and Valtteri Bottas’s Williams in the processes.
Mercedes on Target
On current form I can certainly see Mercedes getting close to McLaren Honda’s 1988 season. They certainly have the driver-car package with almost bullet proof reliability (only a spark plug letting them and Hamilton down in Melbourne). It’s down to Red Bull and Ferrari to stop them.
Will Lewis beat Vettel’s nine in a row? I doubt it. Rosberg is a much closer match to Hamilton than Mark Webber was to Vettel. And Mercedes are happy to let their drivers race. Red Bull seemed more than happy to have one driver take all, seemingly leaving Webber out in the cold.
Onwards to the Monaco Grand Prix. The jewel in the crown of Formula 1: a high downforce track with short, low speed corners. A track that a driver can make the difference and a chance for Red Bull and Ferrari to possibly impress. Or more likely another Hamilton-Rosberg master class.
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