The Grand Prix of Records

Lewis Hamilton takes the chequered flag as usual, but the drive from P3 to P1 with a difference of 20 seconds has to be the best part of the race..


100 Poles. 7 Championships. 97 wins. 3847 points. Something that feels surreal for a team, but imagine that being a drivers stats, and it’s none other than Sir Lewis Hamilton.
Snatching his 100th pole at Catalunya this weekend, he’s done something that even himself from 2007 wouldn’t believe !



“…. it’s lights out and away we goooo!!! ..” is something that any F1 fan would love as the race starts and what a start this one. Lewis got away beautifully, but Max found that little bit of space and licked the stamp and sent it into the first corner and started to pull away.

Moving a little behind out on the track,while the other Mercedes runs behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, was cut short by yellow flags, when Yuki’s AlphaTauri died due to a technical issue. And the safety car was called out. Meanwhile, down the pit straight, George Russel strode down to P15 after using the DRS on Mick. And it all went wrong for Antonio Giovanazzi as his front left was punctured. A great call from the pit stop crew to check the tyre before putting it on the car.


Just like a lion creeps up to its prey, Lewis had a look at Max as the safety car went in. Max did break the tow and pushed ahead. A little down the pack, Lance Stroll goes around the alpine of Alonso, outside of Turn 4, as he picked up the inside of Turn 5.
The two world championships, including the young blood of Pierre Gasley and experience of Alonso & Vettel, have a dogfight for P11. Ending up with Alonso ending up there.


The Catalunya circuit Is famous for its high speed corners, and the tyres tend to scream to death. It has 6 speedy right handers, and it takes a toll on the right rear, and it certainly had hit the car number 44, as he put a blister on the tyre, however, he did continue to push Max’s pace and still managed to hold the fastest time on the circuit.


Sebastian and Fernando, do pit together but don’t come out together as there has been a delay by the pit crew of Aston Martin. After a couple of laps, Max pits but has a costly pit stop and an which provides an opportunity for Mercedes to steal this crown as well! And after 3 laps, the agitation in Toto’s voice is clearly heard as he talks to Michael Massi, as to why Mazepin hadn’t moved out the way, which has cost him a little time.


Mercedes however decided to go long for Lewis’ stint which could be crucial for the the reigning world champ as the track position on this track, has more weightage.
Lewis pits and now falls right behind Max, but did the strategist at Merc have the last laugh as his tyres are 5 laps younger and 1.4 seconds faster to each lap, and Max looked in trouble as the gap fell from 5-seconds, to 3.3-seconds.

Blistering the tyres was the concern for the car of Lewis, but after the stop, the blistering speed of the car turns into the concern of the Red Bull of max!
Listening to the pit box comms, Lewis had asked for a slight change to his front splitter, and it looked like that adjustment had gotten the Merc to its pinnacle of pace. This dogfight is something that should be showcased on a Flat screen TV, and a bunch of fans of both teams, oh! What a scene that would be. But alas, just as the stands of the race don’t have fans due to the pandemic, that excitement is lost..


Looking at the dogfight, one thing is for sure, the Haas cars have been in front of the leaders at the end of the pit straight, be it Mick’s or Nikita’s.
Martin Brundle goes beautifully saying that Max shouldn’t block off phantom moves from Lewis. And he pits!!! He’s put out on another set of mediums and have caught the Red Bull pit box unaware and the question stood, “Will this be a repeat of the Hungarian GP of 2019..? “ this dogfight is a serious one!!


At the pace that max is going at, Lewis is seen to be battling it out in the last lap, as a friendly reminder is received by Bono, that they’ve done this before as well. Meanwhile, a little further back, the last of the late brakers, is out braked by checo to get P5.
Max came out onto the radio to brief the race engineer on how they would finish the race, but could this’ve been a radio trick similar to Lewis when he says tyres are gone and puts down the fastest lap on the next one, we’ll never know..


The Ferrari of Sainz gets a brilliant overtake done at the pit straight end, as the Spaniard moved to P8. And with 15 laps to go, Valtteri received a message to not hold lewis! But as this has been seen before, Valtteri has talked about it in the past and Lewis had to pull a proper overtake to get over into P2 and get the dub. And after all that holding up seems a little unnecessary in hindsight, as he did come into the pits to try for the fastest lap on a set of softs.
10 laps left and striking distance for Lewis is 9 laps. If this isn’t a nailbiter, then I don’t know what’ll be !
The numbers dropping from a 10second to a 3.0second since Lewis passed his fellow flying arrow. And that feels like an eternity ago as the gap quickly closes to a 0.5 seconds as they go round onto the pit straight, and it pays off!!! If there’s one word for it, it’s MADNESS. The, “ Get in there Lewis .. “ was soon to be heard on the radio as he managed to pass the red bull at the end of the pit straight, and HISTORY IS REPEATED!!
Max pits to steal the fastest lap from Valtteri and possibly grab the point out of the Merc’s mouth And he does indeed!


And as the chequered flag waved above the Mercedes of Lewis, he ties his number of wins here at Barcelona with Michael Schumacher.

Radio : “ To all the ladies and gentlemen who’ve gotten great with the car and helped us the way through, a thanks to them. Massive thanks! Let’s keep fighting .. “ ~ Lewis Hamilton


onto the next one.



Picture credits ~ @F1 on Twitter