Five races into the 2017 Formula One season the highly anticipated on-track fight between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel has finally materialised. That it should occur at the Circuit de Catalunya, so often host to a procession, was more remarkable still as a combination of factors in Barcelona combined to serve up a mighty appetiser for the rest of the season.
Hamilton took the win from Vettel in second after his Mercedes team pulled off their best strategic performance of the season, calling to perfection a race that was dictated by differing levels of tyre performance and by pursuing their own singular route.
On the track the two drivers were in a different class from the rest of the field. They both finished 75 seconds clear of the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in third and had lapped the rest. With the retirements of both their team-mates, Hamilton’s and Vettel’s two-horse race here almost certainly reflects what is now their battle for the world championship. Hamilton has now narrowed the gap to Vettel to six points, with 98 to the German’s 104.
Thus far the pair’s relationship has remained friendly and defined by both drivers repeatedly expressing respect for one another. They came as close as they ever have on track in Spain and, while for a moment it appeared that the gloves might be coming off, by the close smiles, laughter and mutual respect were once again the order of the day. If this fight is going to include needle, neither seems interested in starting it yet. The contrast with Hamilton’s relationship with his former team-mate Nico Rosberg could not be starker.
After the last round of stops Vettel came out of the pits wheel to wheel with Hamilton, who tried to go round the outside of turn one but was squeezed wide by the German and went slightly off the track. The British driver called the move “dangerous” over his team radio but it was viewed as fair and no action was taken.
Afterwards Hamilton said his call had been made in the “heat of the moment” and he was ultimately happy with how the pair’s battle had played out. “I loved the fight,” he said. “The sport needs to be like this every single race. This is why I race – to have that close battle with a four-time champ is awesome.”
“We came out very close together,” Hamilton said of the incident and the pair were happy to joke about it. “I gave you space,” Vettel replied. “You didn’t give me much space,” countered Hamilton laughing, offering the German the pay-off line of: “You’re still here ...”
This double act may have been alone out front but they managed a magnificent job of keeping the attention on a circuit where passing is exceptionally difficult. Vettel made the first move, jumping Hamilton on the run down to turn one off the grid and later pulled off a breathtaking pass on the Briton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas to retake the lead. Hamilton played his part to take the lead, and ultimately the win, after battling Vettel for several laps in the final stint before making it stick on lap 44 down the start-finish straight with softer rubber and the DRS advantage.
“Well done to him, he won it fair and square,” Vettel said. “When I came out of the pits I was surprised he was so close. I locked up but I managed to stay in front but as soon as I was alone he just flew past. We did everything we could and it was a great race. We were hoping he would struggle with his tyres at the end but he did not have any problems.”
The tyres had been a crucial factor. Having been out-thought on the pit wall by Ferrari for Vettel’s wins in Australia and Bahrain, Mercedes pursued a course in Barcelona that proved successful. The performance differential between the different types of rubber proved critical and Hamilton’s team exploited it.
The hard compound Pirelli supplied proved too hard to be of any use at the track and the differential between the medium and the soft was higher than usual. The medium rubber had been between seven-tenths and around two seconds a lap slower than the soft over the weekend, meaning the teams wanted to minimise the number of laps it was on the car. Crucially Mercedes had Hamilton on the quicker tyres in the final third where he was able to make use of them to take the lead and the win. Choosing to make two stops and take the slower medium rubber for the middle stint proved decisive.
Vettel’s team had taken the softs for his middle stint and it put him behind the slower Bottas staying out on his first set. The Finn did a mighty job of holding him up for three laps until the German went for broke, sold him a dummy and put two wheels on the grass on the start-finish straight in an almighty lunge to retake the lead up the inside into turn one. It was a determined and absolutely breathtaking move and the German was clearly in no mood for wasting time, which he knew was crucial.
“I thought I have to find some way past even though I was on the grass,” he said. “I faked it on the outside and I nearly lost the car doing it as I had the DRS open and I was quite aggressive on the steering wheel.” It was superb stuff of the kind rarely on offer in Barcelona.
Hamilton, meanwhile, had initially questioned his team’s decision to keep him out longer and then take the medium tyre but it proved to be the right shout. They reinforced it with a brilliantly timed call for his final stop. Waiting until the close of a virtual safety car period, they then pulled Hamilton in and Ferrari could only respond a lap later under full racing conditions and the eight-second gap Vettel had gained had disappeared.
“The magic call was the one to take the pitstop at a time when it looked like the VSC would end soon,” the Mercedes head of motorsport, Toto Wolff, said. “We timed it perfectly, I really take my hat off to James [Vowles, chief strategist] and his group of strategists.”
By the time Hamilton then came to pass, Vettel had no answer to his tyre advantage and he went through as the German described it, “like a train”.
It was enough to secure the win as he managed his rubber to the flag and Barcelona had finally supplied the tension, racing and even passing that it has so often lacked. It was a hard fight then but one that, for the moment, remains a fair one for both its protagonists. “He was tough and hard just to the edge and no more,” Hamilton said of Vettel. “That is how racing should be and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Bottas retired on lap 38 with an engine failure. The Finn was using an older-spec engine that had already done four races, after his new one had to be replaced due to a water leak before third practice. Kimi Raikkonen, in the second Ferrari broke his suspension after contact with Max Verstappen into turn one, sandwiched between the Dutch driver and Bottas. Raikkonen retired on lap one as did Verstappen a lap later with left front suspension damage.
Fernando Alonso, who had put in a masterful lap in qualifying to put his McLaren in seventh had been optimistic that he would finally make the chequered flag here. He has yet to finish a race this season because his Honda power unit has proved unreliable as well as underpowered. But although he lost places to 11th after being hit by the Williams of Felipe Massa into turn two, he did finally cross the line, albeit in 12th place and 2 laps down.
The two Force India’s of Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon continued what has been an exceptional opening to the team’s season with fourth and fifth places, their best of the year and the fifth race in a row Force India have placed both drivers in the points. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was in sixth, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr in seventh; Sauber were equally impressive to score their first points with Pascal Wehrlein’s eighth, with the second Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat in ninth and Romain Grosjean’s Haas in 10th.
