LEWIS’S TOP 10
10 Spanish Grand Prix 2020
Hamilton reckoned this drive was as close to technical perfection as any he could recall. The tyre demands of the track on the day precluded a flat-out race. Instead, pace had to be judged against tyre deg and the strategic demands of the competition. In solving this puzzle, Hamilton put himself into a rare zone of personal performance.
The Mercedes was much the quickest car in qualifying but tended to use its front tyres a little heavier than Max Verstappen’s Red Bull which, during the team’s race simulations in practice, had looked every bit as fast as Hamilton.
Although Hamilton won the start he was disappointed to see it was Verstappen in his mirrors and not the protective presence of team-mate Bottas, who’d qualified alongside Hamilton on the front row. It was too early to press on; the tyres needed to be eased into their stint, especially in these heavily fuelled early stages. So for the first 10 laps or so everyone just drove to whatever lap time was reckoned sustainable for that car. This deferred any would-be gunslinger duel between Hamilton and Verstappen.
It was on the 10th lap that Hamilton decided the time was right to make a break for it. He stepped up the pace by 1.5sec. Verstappen was left breathless. “That’s when I thought, ‘OK, that’s it for the day,’” said Max, who was left behind by around 0.5sec per lap. From there, Hamilton drove as if in a trance of heightened performance, perfectly judging the multidimensional juggle of pace, tyre usage and traffic to win by 24sec.
“We all try for perfection,” he said afterwards, “but today for me I was ecstatic. I didn’t even realise when it was the last lap. I was like a horse with blockers on… Weekend in, weekend out, we move on but I need to appreciate this moment because
