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KEY MOMENTS
* Mercedes driver Hamilton won in Spain from pole with a two-stop
soft-medium-medium tyre strategy: the same as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in
second at the end. However, Verstappen stopped a few laps before Hamilton on
each occasion.
* The other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas finished third, also starting on the
soft before moving onto the medium, but the Finn stopped twice again: for
the soft tyre and then for the medium, making his third and final stop with
two laps to go. He took the extra championship point for fastest lap.
* While the majority of drivers completed two stops, some did just one: with
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez in fifth starting on soft and switching to
medium, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel started on medium from P11 on the
grid and then did an exceptionally long final stint on the soft to secure
seventh.
* McLaren’s Carlos Sainz finished sixth with a soft-soft-medium strategy
while Red Bull’s Alex Albon was eighth with another unique strategy:
soft-hard-medium. Albon was the only driver to use the hard throughout the
race.
* As a result, there were seven different strategies seen in the top eight.
* The overall race time in Barcelona was nearly 10 minutes faster than 2014:
the first year of the hybrid turbo era. That translates into an average lap
time that is more than eight seconds per lap faster: a rate of development
that the tyres have been able to constantly keep pace with.
HOW EACH TYRE PERFORMED
HARD C1: Used only by Albon during the race, with this compound offering a
lower level of grip at the Circuit de Catalunya compared to the two others.
MEDIUM C2: One of the main race tyres here that also proved itself capable
of long stints: Hamilton said after the race that he even briefly thought
about doing a one-stopper, but then decided with his team to stick to the
two-stop plan. Claimed the point for fastest lap with Valtteri Bottas.
SOFT C3: Used by all the top 10 of the grid to take the start and combined
performance with durability to even enable some one-stop strategies.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“Managing the tyres in these demanding conditions with nearly 50 degrees of
track temperatures was a big challenge, especially on the soft tyre.
Nonetheless, we saw stints of more than 30 laps on them, which was extremely
impressive, leading to some one-stop strategies that we didn’t expect. In
particular, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was fifth with soft-medium
one-stopper, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel also stopped once with a brave
strategy, going from medium to soft. Despite the hottest temperatures that
many of the drivers have ever raced and a wide range of demands, the tyres
stood up extremely well to the challenge.” |
