Lewis Hamilton stressed that rival Max Verstappen cannot be ruled out of the world championship battle despite taking a dominant lights-to-flag victory in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix in which he admitted to being in “a daze” such was his control on the race.
Hamilton crossed the line 24 seconds in front of second-place Verstappen completely unaware that the race was over, having enjoyed one his most controlling wins since arriving in Formula One 12 years ago. The 35-year-old lapped the entire field apart from the top three on his way to the 88th victory of his career, which leaves him just three shy of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record.
After managing his tyres early, Hamilton was able to continually pull away from the Red Bull of Verstappen, who grew increasingly frustrated behind the wheel as he saw the 2020 championship leader disappear from view in front of him, and such was Hamilton’s stranglehold on the Catalunya race, he admitted to being in a zone where he was oblivious to any other distractions around him.
"I was just in a daze out there, it felt really good,” Hamilton said afterwards. “It was a fantastic effort from the team.
"Oh God it felt good. I didn't know it was the last lap. That is how zoned-in I was. I was ready to keep going."
The victory sees Hamilton stretch his lead in the drivers’ championship to 37 points over Verstappen, and 43 to Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who for the fourth race in a row finished lower down the order than where he started due to a poor start that dropped him behind the Red Bull driver as well as Lance Stroll.
Having beaten at least one of the two Mercedes’ for a fourth consecutive result, Verstappen has emerged as the likeliest challenger to Hamilton’s hopes of tying Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world championships, and the Briton believes he is in store for a stiff challenge throughout the remainder of the campaign.
“After Max was second in (Austria) I looked and if he didn’t have that DNF he’d be 12 points behind,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.
“It’s a lot closer than people think, and then generally in the race they’re right with us. But today I felt like I was in such a different head space in the car, it was awesome. It was the best I’ve felt for a very long time, I was just flowing lap by lap and ooph.”
In winning four of the opening six races of the season, Hamilton appears on course to record his seventh championship title triumph this year, and could also break Schumacher’s all-time record haul of Grand Prix wins, with victory on Sunday moving him to within three of tying the German’s tally of 91 - which could come at next month’s inaugural round at Mugello.
Despite engaging in a heated back-and-forth with his race engineer during the race, Verstappen was pleased to finish ahead of Bottas once again - but accepted they had no answer for the pace of Hamilton.
"To be able to split the Mercedes was very good for us,” Verstappen said. We didn't have Lewis' pace but I am very happy with second. The start was crucial to get past Valtteri (Bottas)."
