Hamilton lost 2kgs in Catalunya, but gained vital points

Last Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix in Catalunya was everything Formula One fans had hoped for in the quest for highly competitive racing between different teams.

The fact that Mercedes and Ferrari were separated by less than four seconds after 66 laps, while deploying different race strategies, points to how narrow the gap is in the performance of the cars.

Third place went to Red Bull, though with more than a minute separating second-placed Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, there is a sense that Mercedes and Ferrari are in a league of their own and the championship race is between the two.

It was a disappointing Sunday for Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who went out seconds into the race in the first corner when Raikkonen sought to hug the inside lane as though the Mercedes of Valterri Bottas was non-existent, taking out Verstappen in the process.

The race blew wide open when Vettel overtook the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton right at the start.

There were nervous faces at the Mercedes paddock but it was game on when it became obvious that Hamilton would not let Vettel disappear down the road. With a comfortable lead and knowing that Mercedes would fret if Vettel pitted seeking to extend his lead by using an undercut, Ferrari called Vettel in on the 15th lap.

True to their plan, Vettel was out again and began to close the gap to Hamilton.

But Mercedes’ engineers had other ideas. They kept out both Hamilton and Bottas, with permutations before them indicating that Hamilton had a good chance of winning the race despite Vettel’s early pit stop.

Hamilton dived into the pit-stop on the 22nd lap, in part to limit the damage of the precious seconds that Vettel was adding between the Ferrari and the Merc. One of the highlights of the race was Vettel’s overtaking manoeuvre on Bottas.
The Finn did Hamilton a huge favour by holding back the German for a while as Hamilton closed the gap on the Ferrari.

Vettel had to make one more pit-stop to put on mediums while Hamilton would have the softs for the last stint, a reversal of fortunes for the Italian team towards the end of race.

Hamilton came in under the virtual safety car on lap 37 and had the huge task ahead of nursing his softs for the next 29 laps.

Ferrari responded soon after the Brit’s pit-stop by having Vettel come in for mediums.

WHEEL-TO-WHEEL ACTION

Gripping action soon followed as Hamilton cruised on the speed trap past the pit-stops which Vettel was exiting.

Hamilton stayed on the left side of the track into the right turn attempting to sweep past the German but Vettel was already up to speed and managed to hold up his position to the delight of the Ferrari pit crew and courtesy of wheel-to-wheel action which saw Hamilton forced to use the run-off area.

The chase was on!

Vettel had the advantage of traffic ahead which enabled him to engage the Drag Reduction System to keep Hamilton at bay, cancelling out the Brit’s advantage of having the system at his disposal.

Luck was not on Vettel’s side for long however as he could not have traffic up ahead for the rest of the race and fittingly on the 44th lap, (Hamilton’s car is no. 44), the three-time champion swept past the four-time champion in a move that the Ferrari had little defence against. Would Hamilton’s tyres hold for the remaining 22 laps?

After opening a four-second cushion, Hamilton only needed to keep the Ferrari at bay despite Vettel having more durable tyres, a task which proved well within his grasp.

Hamilton lost about two kilos during the race, a sacrifice borne out of the demands of the 2017 F1 vehicles which have drivers facing greater G-forces while racing than previous models.

It’s a loss which he no doubt feels was overcompensated by winning, now that he is just six points behind Vettel in the race for the title after five races.

Alex Mwangi, a business reporter at NTV, is an avid Formula One follower. [email protected]