NO RAIN IN SPAIN AS HAMILTON BREEZES TO ANOTHER VICTORY

There were few surprises in the Spanish Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory in what he described as a ‘perfect’ race. After the race Toto Wolff sang the drivers praises explaining how during the race he was a class apart, effortlessly managing tyres, switching down engine settings to give the team more options later on in the season, and all that while smashing out consistently fast laps.

The British driver extended his Championship lead to 39 points after finishing 24 seconds ahead of his closest rival Max Verstappen. Hamilton afterwards put emphasis on his ability to make no mistakes unlike teammate Valtteri Bottas who’s poor start condemned him to a third-place finish.

Verstappen continued to be the ‘best-of-the-rest’, taking another second place in the season in the face of the dominant Mercedes. The Red Bull team has however come under criticism for their handling of Alex Albon’s strategies.

Red Bull’s driver handling in Spain suggests that Albon is the second driver in this team, being pitted after only 18 laps for a set of hard tyres. This is despite many drivers having described the C1s as like driving on ice throughout the whole weekend. As a result, Albon struggled somewhat with the rest of the midfield who were running the mediums. Former F1 driver Joylon Palmer has said that Red Bull blatantly use Albon as a ‘Guinea Pig’, and that ‘The whole race was baffling for that side of the garage.’

Sebastian Vettel’s split from Ferrari has started to border on unprofessional for both parties, but race day in Spain brought a much-improved performance from the German. A 7^th place finish was his best since Hungary, showing his level of experience by managing the soft tyres through a one-stop strategy.

The points he scored on Sunday only brought him to a mere 16 for the season.

However, they also made him the second Formula 1 driver in history to amass 3000 Championship points after Hamilton, who’s total currently sits at 3,563.

Racing Point seem to only improve as the year progresses, bagging 4^th and 5^th this weekend only reversing the positions they held after qualifying. The team has certainly solidified themselves as the kings of the upper-midfield, and all the political issues off the track appear to have no effect on the performance of the drivers.

Overall, the race finished pretty much as was expected apart from the electrical issue that forced a retirement from Charles Leclerc on lap 37, putting a dampener on his otherwise impressive season so far. The only other news being that Kimi Raikkonen now boasts the furthest distance raced of any F1 driver. We will have to take this record as the silver lining to the cloud of his worst start to a Formula 1 season, scoring no points so far.

JDC is looking forward to welcoming everyone back to Formula 1 in 2021 for what is expected to be a very exciting and closely run season. If you’d like to experience any of the races on the 2021 calendar, then take a look at our Paddock Club™ hospitality packages or contact JDC Promotions and let us build a bespoke package for you and your guests.