Lewis Hamilton dominated the Spanish Grand Prix from start to finish to extend his lead in the Formula One world championship this season. Hamilton has also overtaken Michael Schumacher’s record for the most podium finishes in F1 with an impressive win on Sunday.
Hamilton had equalled Schumacher’s mark of 155 podiums with a second-place finish at last week’s race at Silverstone and is now ahead on 156 after one of the largest victories of his career – a whopping 24 seconds over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Hamilton led from pole to the chequered flag in Barcelona
“I was just in a daze, I felt really good out there today. We had this problem with the tyres, and an understanding of what happened last week enabled us to get that result today – the strategy we had was just right.”
“I didn’t even realise what lap it was – I was ready to keep going! Finally, thank you to everyone back in the factory at this very difficult time.”
Verstappen managed to split the Mercedes drivers with Valtteri Bottas made to pay the price for a poor start to the race.
Hamilton’s 156 podiums have come from 256 appearances – a ratio of 61 % in comparison to Schumacher who has achieved 155 podiums in 306 starts.
A record breaking 156th podium finish for Lewis Hamilton! 🏆🍾
He overtakes Michael Schumacher and now stands atop the all-time list 👏#SkyF1 | #F1 pic.twitter.com/zBjKfOBbke
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 16, 2020
Sergio Perez finished fourth but was demoted to fifth after serving a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags. Racing Point’s Lance Stroll took the position with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz finishing in sixth.
Ferrari’s troubled start to the season continued as Charles Leclerc suffered a spin and had a premature end to his race in lap 38. The Montagesque driver will be looking to have a better outing next week at Ferrari’s home GP.
Sebastian Vettel spent much of the afternoon in the midfield before attempting a one-stop strategy. Despite having a sluggish start to the race, Vettel had one of the best drives of his final season at Ferrari, finishing P7, his second-best result of the current campaign.
P11 to P7 ⬆️
And you have voted Sebastian Vettel as your Driver of the Day!#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/s7eRGacrdv
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 16, 2020
“It’s quite simple, we didn’t have anything to lose.The last five laps were really difficult.”
“We took that risk, it came off, but it wasn’t the plan before the race to go 40 laps on the soft tyres! Some sessions felt quite poor, there’s still some work to do on my side.”
Lando Norris, who did well to hold off Leclerc during a rare moment of action, finished 10th.
CLASSIFICATION: END OF RACE
Another win for the imperious @LewisHamilton
Stroll leapfrogs Perez to take P4 after a penalty for Perez#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/sKiNuDdovV
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 16, 2020
Hamilton will be looking to win his 5th race out of the last 6 races this season in Italy next week. Today’s win extended his championship advantage to 37 points over Verstappen and takes him within three victories of Michael Schumacher’s record of 91. He could possibly reach that mark in Mugello on September 13 – the occasion of Ferrari’s 1,000th Grand Prix.
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Lewis Hamilton wins 92nd career pole in Barcelona, aims for 88th career win on Sunday
