Lewis Hamilton enjoyed an amazing victory at the Spanish Grand Prix after beating Red Bull rival Max Verstappen. But according to the seven-time world champion, the highlight of his race was that he learned a lot about the Dutchman.
Hamilton surprised everyone by going for a two-stop strategy and managed to take back the lead from Verstappen.
The Red Bull driver had taken the lead after Turn 1 at the start of the race. This led the Briton to spend almost half the race trying to regain his position.
By driving so close to Verstappen, the reigning champion claimed that he learned a lot about this rival.
“It was actually a really good day,” he said after taking the win. “I learned a lot about Max today and perhaps more than all the other races probably put together.”
When asked what exactly he learned about Verstappen, Hamilton dodged the question.
“Not particularly, no [laughs]. It was just… when you’re with people on track… you get to see different things and you can follow closely.
“Obviously I was following relatively closely and I learned a lot about his car and learned a lot about how he uses it. So that was a good race in that respect.”
While Hamilton lost the lead at the start of the race, his two-stop strategy that saw him pit from second for a new set of mediums helped him close the 22-second gap.
By lap 60, the Brit was in the lead and went on to win with a 15.8 seconds gap.
“It had been the plan all weekend for us to make sure we had two mediums to be able to do a two-stop. Even though a one-stop potentially looked better, I know from experience here that a one-stop is very, very hard to pull off.” Hamilton said.
“And as soon as we had the pace that we had I knew as soon as I was able to get past him, if I could, and I was about to kind of, I think, have a shot at getting past him before I pitted right at the end and I was really conflicted, like: do I come in or do ignore the call and stay out?
“But it’s a remarkable job by everyone in this team, though and through, and yeah what a day,” he concluded.
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