Lewis Hamilton takes first Ferrari win on all-British podium at Barcelona-Catalunya
Lewis Hamilton took a magnificent first victory for Ferrari at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix as George Russell and Lando Norris completed a first all-British podium since 1968.
Hamilton achieved a first victory in red after an offset three-stop strategy caught Mercedes off guard and put the Brit in prime position to take his 106th win and first in 686 days.
The seven-time champion’s pace made him unstoppable as he pulled nearly twenty seconds to pole-sitter Russell. A late virtual safety car from Fernando Alonso’s injured Aston Martin meant Ferrari could achieve a cheap pitstop to guarantee Hamilton’s record breaking eighth win around this track.
Russell was undercut by Hamilton and despite his heroics on Saturday, the Mercedes man struggled for pace around the high-degradation circuit. Teammate Kimi Antonelli passed Russell on pure pace with a handful of laps to go, but another engine failure meant Antonelli failed to finish the race and was unable to stretch his championship lead.
Hamilton is now poised 45 points behind the Italian, with Russell close behind.
Antonelli’s retirement meant McLaren’s Lando Norris was elevated to the podium, after a strong showing that caused Mercedes to keep checking over their shoulder.
At the same time as Antonelli, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lost power steering and retired to round out a second successive tricky weekend despite Ferrari’s haul of upgrades for Spain.
Max Verstappen finished in fourth for Red Bull with Oscar Piastri being the benefactor of these retirement as he finished fifth after struggling for pace around the low-grip circuit.
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar tumbled to 13th at the start but clawed his way back through to a commendable P6.
Alpine and Racing Bulls both achieved double points finishes after the higher-up DNFs, with Pierre Gasly finishing seventh from Liam Lawson (RB), Arvid Lindblad (RB) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine).
Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg ran well in the points in the opening stint, but gravel flicked up from Lawson ahead hit the German’s engine kill switch which saw Hulkenberg unluckily retire from the race.
Audi teammate Gabriel Borltoleto finished in eleventh in a weekend that hoped to demonstrate Audi’s full potential at a track that clearly defines the pecking order.
Williams’ Carlos Sainz finished twelfth from Haas’ Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, who rounded out the fourteen finishers, for Cadillac.
The other Williams of Alex Albon retired early from the race but returned to the Grand Prix later on, only to finish with a non-classified time 11 laps behind the leaders after treating his track time as a testing session.
Ollie Bearman retired his Haas near the end of the race with issues as did Cadillac’s Valterri Bottas earlier on.
Lance Stroll personally made the call to retire his Aston Martin after losing several gears.
With the European season now in swing, Formula 1 returns in two weeks for the Austrian Grand Prix.
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