Analysis race GP Spain 2018

Why was Mercedes so dominant?

M ercedes more than lived up to its role of favorite in Barcelona. The Silver Arrows found their way back to the outstanding shape of the winter test drives seemingly effortlessly. Lewis Hamilton drove a race in overdrive from pole position. In the end, the timing showed a clear lead of 20.593 seconds over the runner-up - and that was also a Mercedes with Valtteri Bottas.

“We worked hard to analyze and fix our problems from the first races eliminate, ”said Toto Wolff, explaining the turnaround. The clap for the competition has even more reasons. “The route here just suits us. And the cool temperatures were certainly good for us, too, 'the team boss of the world championship team openly admitted.

It was unclear why the Australian was unable to intervene in the duel for the podium. Only a look at the lap times table gave the answer. On lap 42, the gap between the two Red Bull sister cars suddenly increased by 7 seconds.

Because the TV images couldn't solve the riddle, the only thing that helped was asking the team: “It was about to restart after the virtual safety car phase, he spun when he wanted to accelerate out of turn 10. That threw him back into the no man's land of the field ”, explained team boss Christian Horner. Ricciardo's fastest race lap showed that Red Bull could have had more. “It was no longer about anything for him. And we had long since turned down the engine power. Max also showed that the pace was there in the car. Despite the cracked front wing and older tires, he was able to easily keep Vettel behind him. Unfortunately, we had no chance here on this track that was not overtaking because of the power deficit in qualifying and the resulting poor starting positions. I hope things will look a little different in Monaco.

We'll show you the highlights of the race again in the gallery.