Spanish GP: Hamilton broke Schumacher's record of most podium finishes!

It was scorching hot at Circuit de Catalunya, as the lights went out. Hamilton on pole took a rocket start, on the contrary to his teammate. Verstappen saw his chance and snatched the second place. Bottas got sandwiched by the "pink Mercedes", as Stroll, too had passed the Finn, and Perez was at the Finn's tail. It was crucial for Valtteri to pass Stroll to keep his dream of challenging his teammate alive. Circuit de Catalunya is known for only very few places for overtaking; on lap 5 Valtteri saw his chance and made a successful overtaking move at Turn 1.

Hamilton in the lead kept setting considerably slow lap times, in order to manage his soft tyres. It was easy for Verstappen to keep within 1.5 seconds from the Briton. Bottas, too was within a couple of seconds from the Dutchman. The top three was on a level of their own, as the Racing Points weren't able to match the top three's pace. Albon in his RB16 was the first top driver to pit on lap 17. The Thai driver opted for a fresh set of hard Pirellis, which seemed a bit questionable choice.

By lap 20 the gaps between the top three had increased. Hamilton had already built up a 6-second gap to Verstappen, and Bottas was now 8.5 seconds behind his teammate. It was a bit surprising to hear Verstappen complain about his out-worn tyres on the team radio. On the basis of last weekend's events at Silverstone, I had expected it to be Mercedes, who would be in trouble with tyre management. Meanwhile Kimi, who had started to the race on the medium compound, pitted for another set of mediums. Max pitted a lap later. The flying Dutchman switched to the medium rubber, and rejoined the track in P3, right ahead of the Racing Points. As both McLarens pitted, the Ferrari duo was now in P6 (Charles) and P7 (Sebastian). Hamilton and Bottas pitted from the lead -also for another set of mediums.

Perez in his RP20 and Charles in his SF1000 drove a 29-lap first stint on the softs, until they pitted for mediums. Sebastian had started to the race on the yellow-marked medium tyres, and he switched to softs on lap 29. In the halfway point of the race dark clouds had emerged in the sky, and even rain was predicted some ten laps before the chequered flag. It seemed almost as if the dark clouds were an omen for the Red Team. Suddenly on lap 37 Charles span without making a mistake of his own, and his SF1000 stopped at the second last corner. The Monegasque managed to continue, but in the end, he had to box and retire the car. Now it was all about Sebastian's performance.

During the Spanish GP Kimi in his Alfa Romeo broke a record. After completing lap 37, the Iceman had raced 83 846 km, which is further than any other driver in F1 history! In fact, that's more than twice the circumference of the Earth! The record breaker was now in P13 in the race. 

Red Bull reacted first and called Max in on lap 41. He rejoined the track in P3 on a fresh set of medium Pirellis. However, Bottas proved unable to open a gap big enough to the Dutchman. The Finn pitted for the second time on lap 48, for soft tyre wear. Race leader Hamilton, on the other hand, told on the team radio, that he didn't want to switch to the soft compound, but he was happy with his current tyres. The Briton boxed two laps after his teammate, for another set of mediums. 

Perez in P4 had been taken under investigation by the stewards for ignoring blue flags, when race leader Hamiltonnwas lapping him. Soon the Mexican was given a 5-second time penalty for his infringement. AlphaTauri's Kvyat was similarly penalised some laps later. 

The atmosphere between Sebastian and the Red Team seemed everything but warm. Sebastian's race engineer Adami asked on the team radio, what Sebastian thought about going till the end on the soft tyres. The German replied, that wasn't it what they had discussed earlier already. Thanks to the one-stop strategy, Sebastian was now fifth in the race. However, there were threats coming from behind. First of them was Racing Point's Stroll.

On lap 57 the Canadian had made it within striking distance from the German. Unfortunately there was only very little for Sebastian to do, when Stroll opened his DRS. Losing P5 to Stroll was unfortunately inevitable. Three laps later McLaren's Sainz had closed the gap to Sebastian, who was in trouble with his dying tyres. Thanks to DRS, also Sainz made it past Sebastian, who now dropped down to P7. 

Although Bottas had set the fastest lap time three laps before the chequered flag, he pitted on the second last lap for a fresh set of medium tyres. Due to screwing up at the start, the Finn wanted the extra point for the fastest lap time. Which he also nailed on the very final lap! 

It was win number 88 for imperious Hamilton. Runner-up Verstappen was massive 23 seconds off the world champion's pace. Bottas in third was another 20 seconds behind the Red Bull ace. Unbelievable but true, only those three cars were on the same lap! Perez crossed the finish line in P4, but teammate Stroll leapfrogged him after the penalty for the Mexican. Sainz finished sixth for McLaren and Sebastian scored his best result this season by finishing in seventh. Despite lack of car performance, he fought bravely on a differing pit stop strategy. I was touched to see him voted as the Driver of the Day. Albon finished eighth in the sister Red Bull, with AlphaTauri's Gasly and McLaren's Norris completing the top ten. Unfortunately Kimi didn't make it in points, but was left in P13. 

Hamilton now broke Schumacher's record of most podium finishes, as this was the 156th podium finish for the sweeping Mercedes ace. His dominance made today's race very boring. Not even the rain came to mix things up. Hamilton now has 132 points to Verstappen's 95. Teammate Bottas is 43 points off the Briton already. Hamilton keeps breaking Schumacher's records one after another.

After a two-week break the F1 circus will move to Spa, Belgium. With high hopes I'm looking forward to more success from Sebastian and the Red Team. Forza Ferrari!