The last time Lewis Hamilton stood at the top of the F1 podium, Max Verstappen had yet to win the Drivers’ Championship.
Will that change tomorrow?
Hamilton’s last victory came in the penultimate race of that season, the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. As our readers know, Verstappen won the next race, the still-debatable 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, to secure the 2021 Drivers’ Championship.
Since then, Hamilton and Mercedes have struggled to get back on track, but the team’s recent upgrades to its 2024 W15 car have improved its on-track performance. Mercedes has now enjoyed its best weekend of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix. On Saturday at Barcelona, Hamilton produced his best qualifying performance of the year, finishing third behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
After the session, Hamilton said he was “focused” on fighting for victory.
“We’re focused on fighting for the win tomorrow and our long run into the first corner put us in a good starting position,” Hamilton said in the team’s post-qualifying report. “Degradation will also play an important role tomorrow but I thought our long runs in practice were strong in that respect and hopefully that will carry over to Sunday and we can have a good afternoon.”
Hamilton won’t be the only Mercedes driver on the second row on Sunday, with team-mate George Russell qualifying just behind Hamilton in fourth place and, on the other side of the garage, Russell also believes the team can compete at the front.
“On a circuit like this, it’s always the ultimate race pace of the car that wins the race. Our race pace has been good so far this weekend and we’re hopeful we can fight for the podium and hopefully the win,” said Russell. “The steps we’ve taken recently with the car have obviously helped and we’ll look to continue to build on that momentum.”
It will be interesting to see how Mercedes handles their strategy options on Sunday. With Norris and Verstappen both starting in front of the Silver Arrows pair, while Russell and Hamilton are both on the second row, this gives Mercedes some options. Will they go for a split tyre strategy, or will both Hamilton and Russell be on the same compound at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix?
Hamilton hinted at the strategy options available to his team for Saturday’s race. FIA press conference.
“These two [Norris and Verstappen] It will be very fast, but it’s all about position… and we have two, so hopefully as a team we can put pressure on the two cars in front and slowly work our way up the field with a strategy.” Said “Tomorrow it’s a question of degradation and then how we deal with it,” Hamilton said. [tires]so we won’t know until we get into the first run.”
Mercedes go into Sunday’s race in their strongest starting position of the season – can they turn this into their best day of the F1 season?
You’ll see it soon.
