Lewis Hamilton gets the victory in the weekend of his 100th pole position in career. After being overtaken by Verstappen at Turn 1 in the first lap, he had to chase him down, but, just when he was on the brink of passing the Red Bull, he got called for a second pit stop.

This strategy turned out to be the right choice, as Hamilton managed to close the gap with one-stopper Verstappen, who also suffered from a slow pit, and return to his starting position with seven laps to spare, scoring his third victory of the season and increasing his championship advantage on the Dutch driver to 14 points.

The 7 times World Champion said during the post-race interview session that he didn't think his tyres were going to perform well until the end of the race, considering the pace he had to keep in order to catch Verstappen.

"[It was] such a close start, obviously there was a little rubber down on the right-hand side and the Red Bull made a great start,then I was just hunting, and I was so close for so long, and I didn't think in doing that I was going to be able to make the tyres last."

He praised his team's work, and especially his teams's "gambling" strategy choice, which was crucial in scoring the victory, personally thanking Mercedes's strategy chief James Vowles in a team radio at the end of the race:

"But I just managed to just keep them in somehow. And a long way to come from 20 seconds back. But it was a good gamble, really great strategy."

He added that the two stops have always been an option, knowing from his past races that tyre management at Montmelo is difficult: "Even though one-stop potentially looks better, I know from experience here that a one-stop is very, very hard to pull off. And as soon as we had the pace that we had, I knew as soon as I could get past him if I could."

Hamilton also admitted that, when he was asked to pit just before overtaking Verstappen, he was unsure about it, but that he still followed his team orders, which proved to be the right thing to do in the end.

"I was about to get, I think, a shot to get past him before I pitted him right at the end. I was really conflicted: do I come in or do I ignore the call and stay out? I did what the team, asked and that's because there is great trust between us."

He also said that, by completing many laps behind him, he has learned a lot on how Verstappen and his car perform, "perhaps more than all the other races probably put together."

The British driver has equalised Ayrton Senna's impressive record of most consecutive victories at the same track, with five victories in a row at the Cataluña Circuit.

"It was a remarkable job by everyone in this team. What a day!" he concluded.

YESSS!! 👊

What a race! @LewisHamilton WINS the #SpanishGP!! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VZuH0TlKab

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 9, 2021

 

 

A fifth consecutive win in Barcelona!
✌️👑✌️ @LewisHamilton #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/LLjmA29Vir

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 9, 2021