Verstappen<\/a> crossing the checkered flag nearly 24 seconds ahead of the Mercedes- Lewis Hamilton was able to outperform drivers several years younger to him. <\/p>\n\n\n\nRather interestingly, his own teammate, who didn\u2019t take long upon his Mercedes arrival last year to put a staunch fight to the seven-time world champion, was also left in the rear mirrors of Lewis Hamilton\u2019s car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For all the energy rallying behind two popular Spanish drivers (it being their home Grand Prix), Sainz, still rising in his career while Alonso, an accomplished legend of the sport, both couldn\u2019t even touch Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Mercedes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is how far ahead in front was the Stevenage-born racing legend who rightly epitomizes the principle he stands for, \u201cStill, I rise!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interacting with the media in the aftermath of the race, Lewis contended with much passion and quintessential simplicity, \u201cYou could see today my performance is not affected by that (Mercedes contract), but it\u2019s always something that\u2019s at the back of your mind. The podium today was really, really special. To be able to see the excitement in all the people that have worked for such a long time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But could the hard fought podium finish come any easy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hamilton, though not the race winner, gathered what became a whopping 193rd career podium at Spain and throughout the entirety of the 66-lap contest remained as the quicker Mercedes driver giving no chance whatsoever to Russell to put up a fight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though implicit in his vastly improved performance this last weekend at Barcelona, considering his previous two races yielded a sixth at Miami and a fourth at Monaco, was excellent tyre management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a fast charger of track punctuated with several high speed corners, the key was to not lose race pace despite the severity of tyre degradation, which is what allowed Hamilton to stay out in the front. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a matter of fact, both Red Bulls and Mercedes machines were perhaps playing the mind battle of who pits first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By as late as lap 21, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton hadn\u2019t yet boxed for tire change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the later stages of the race, of course, it was about Hamilton trying to reduce any gap he could possibly have against the leading man out on the track: Verstappen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Spanish GP of 2023 also showed how the Mercedes upgrades that were carried out at Monaco worked well here albeit these being completely different conditions to the street venue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Better straight line pace and more grip on the high speed corners definitely allowed Lewis Hamilton to maintain a comfortable position out in second. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That he didn\u2019t put a foot wrong and put all those years of experience into work at Calalonia only helped Mercedes\u2019 cause at the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in all, the outing at Spain was about wide eyed smiles and newfound optimism because with Hamilton and Russell\u2019s 2nd and 3rd, Mercedes are no more trailing the Aston Martin side; they\u2019ve actually lunged ahead on the Constructor Standings holding currently a lead of 18 points over Aston Martin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mercedes have 152 points at the moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for his Mercedes future and the talk about the contract, here\u2019s what Lewis Hamilton added, \u201cI\u2019m planning to do a multi-year deal with my team. I\u2019m working as hard as I can with this team and I see so much strength within the team. They are still so hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They say, you tend to perform to your very limit when you\u2019re free of any anxieties and with the thought of your future absolutely secured. But that may not always apply to everyone. Now whether the thought about his future Mercedes contract played out on his mind at Spain given it hasn\u2019t quite been prepared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":40689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[6593,6591],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40688"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40691,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40688\/revisions\/40691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}