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Mercedes driver
Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix after a battle that was so close
with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel that the two even touched after the final
pit stops. Both stopped twice after starting on the soft tyre, but Hamilton
did a middle stint on the medium compound then finished on the soft, whereas
Vettel did a middle stint on soft to finish the race on the medium.
Both fought hard on the track as well as in the pits with their different
strategies, but eventually finished the race in the order in which they
started it on the grid. Conditions remained dry and warm, ending in track
temperatures of 43 degrees centigrade.
Only three drivers started the race on the medium tyre, with Toro Rosso’s
Daniil Kvyat running a medium-soft-soft race to finish in the points from
the last row of the grid. Pascal Wehrlein was another points finisher for
Sauber, ending up eighth (following a five-second penalty) after stopping
just once, completing two roughly equal stints on the soft and the medium.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“Hamilton sealed victory thanks also to the low degradation and strong
performance of the medium tyre that he ran in the second stint; the same
strategy adopted by Daniel Ricciardo in third. Degradation and wear was low
despite the high track temperatures; demonstrated by the fact that Hamilton
set the fastest lap of the race very close two laps from the end with a time
more than 3.4 seconds faster than the equivalent last year”.
TRUTHOMETER
Lewis Hamilton won the race using two pit stops: starting on soft, changing
to medium on lap 22, and then going back to soft on lap 37. This was the
most likely, but not theoretically fastest scenario, which was predicted to
be a three-stopper. The highest-placed three-stopper was local hero Fernando
Alonso, in 12th. |
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