Lewis Hamilton extended his reign over Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The leader of the World Championship conquered the FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2020, and stepped on the top of the podium for the fourth year in a row, joined by Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.
The sixth round of the championship season was expected to be an interesting race and it did not disappoint. Under a few conditioning factors, such as the extremely high asphalt temperatures or the almost 60% ambient humidity, Lewis Hamilton took the start of the race from pole position. From then on, the Mercedes driver began another of his particular sprints. Although he was sharing the front row with Valtteri Bottas before the lights went out, a few seconds later he had young Max Verstappen right behind him, followed by Lance Stroll and Bottas in fourth position.
The fastest strategies recommended by Pirelli were two stops and several drivers went to their pit garages already during the first quarter of the race. This is where Carlos Sainz played an important role. The McLaren driver, who started from seventh, was surrounded by constant battles. Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly, Checo Pérez or Sebastian Vettel, he overtook all of them in order to keep his position. The truth is that Racing Point, fitted with a Mercedes power unit, had a great performance and eventually finished ahead of the local driver, with Stroll on fourth and Pérez on fifth. Carlos’ “nightmare” was actually Albon, but the Spaniard eventually got away with the sixth position.
Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari decided to make a single stop, and although it seemed to be risky at first, the German driver was able to clearly improve his starting position. Vettel finished seventh after starting from eleventh, ahead of Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly. The other McLaren machine, driven by Lando Norris, was the last car to score points. Charles Leclerc, who was also fighting in this group, had to stop in the middle of the track, with suspected problems in the engine of the Ferrari SF1000. Although the Monegasque driver was able to restart the car, his race ended after arriving at the Scuderia’s pit garage.
Daniel Ricciardo finished close to the points, as well as Daniel Kvyat, on eleventh and twelfth position, followed by Renault driver Esteban Ocon. As on other occasions, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams took the closing positions of the classification.
Carlos Sainz: “At last a clean, problem-free race. A fought race, probably one of the most fought-for races. I think that we finally achieved a good result, and I hope this will serve us to gain confidence. Despite not having the best of paces and with a bit more degradation, what is actually important, is that we were able to stand up to Ferrari and Red Bull. I believe that this is still my talisman racetrack and my talisman race is the home grand prix. I also missed the fans. Hopefully this is the last time without them”.
Drugovich, Ghiotto and Schumacher, the best in F2
The starting grid of the Formula 2 sprint race was made-up of the eight top positions from yesterday’s feature race in reverse order. Thus, Drugovich, Ghiotto and Schumacher were able to make the best use of the chance to take the start from the front positions on the main straight of the circuit. Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport) took the leading position from Luca Ghiotto (Hitech Grand Prix), who finished second, and Mick Schumacher (Prema Racing) kept his third position.
On the other side of the coin there was the leader of the championship, Calum Ilott. The UNI-Virtuosi driver started from the second row of the grid, but his tyres faded and he did not even manage to score points.
Oscar Piastri wins the Formula 3 battle
Oscar Piastri and Prema Racing were the overall rulers of the second Formula 3 race of the weekend. Piastri made very good use of the first lap, moving up from fifth to the lead. From then on, nothing, neither the two safety car deployments nor the following reduction of the distance between cars, was able to take the leading position from him.
Alexander Peroni made a try. The Campos Racing driver, who finished second today, was able to be in the lead during the first few metres. Even though, it was an excellent result for the Spanish team. Matteo Nannini (Jenzer Motorsport) joined them on the third step of the podium.
Larry ten Voorde did not disappoint in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup
Larry ten Voorde (Team GP Elite) had a brilliant weekend at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He took the pole and the victory and didn’t leave his rivals any chance to improve his results. And he made it despite today’s demanding race, as an initial incident, with a car stopped at the start caused the race to be suspended for a few minutes.
After the second start, Larry ten Voorde continued setting the pace. Jaxon Evans (BWT Lechner Racing) also managed to retain his starting position finishing second. Team-mate Dylan Pereira closed the top 3 in Barcelona.
