Mercedes
Contrasting starts at Mercedes, with Russell making such a good launch that he was able to take the lead, while Hamilton dropped back. That left Russell as the lead car once Verstappen passed and therefore the team pitted him first. Hamilton lost in the undercut to Sainz and had to fight hard to get back past the Ferrari man, and the team then split their strategies in the final stint, putting Russell on hards and Hamilton on softs. In the end, everything worked out for Hamilton, who had better tires to catch up and overtake his teammate and take the final podium spot.
Lewis Hamilton, 3rd
“It’s been a really fantastic weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium, so I’m really happy! We’re not there yet, but we’ve made a big step in the last few races. We didn’t make it. We’ve got quite a bit pace to fight with the two guys in front of us, but if we can be more consistent like this, we’ll be in a strong position. We’re on track to catch up with those guys and that’s fantastic.
“I had a very bad start, which was unfortunate. The race could have been slightly different if I had gotten off the line better, but in the end, I think third position was the maximum today. I am also satisfied with my progress over Sainz. I gave him enough space and we both made it through the corner. It was an important move for my career, so I was glad we did it. Now we are in Austria and we are looking forward to it.
George Russell, 4th.
“Unfortunately, there were a few things that hurt us today. We had a slow first pit stop and then the hard tire didn’t feel very good in the last stint. However, as a team our goal was to maximize what we could.” We made it today, and we made it with P3 and P4. Lewis drove a great race today and we took away the big positives from what have been a very promising couple of races.
“I was dreaming about doing a move like the one I did last night in turn one. I didn’t think it would come true the way it did! I remember Fernando (Alonso) making a similar start in 2013. We had a headwind. , so I knew I could brake quite late. It was a very satisfying move and it felt good to lead a race again Unfortunately, Max (Verstappen) was too fast for us today, as was Lando. It’s very encouraging now that we’re heading. to Austria”.
Toto Wolff, director of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“We can take a lot of positives from today. We have taken several steps forward in previous races and it is good to see them confirmed here in Spain. We are not there yet and we have to do more to catch up with those ahead. However , we are on a positive development trajectory and it feels good to be back in the game.
“It was also fantastic to achieve two of the best overtakes I have seen in a long time. George made a great start and braked late to take the lead. Meanwhile, Lewis’ overtake on Sainz was a great race and an important moment for his career “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to enjoy a Grand Prix podium with Lewis, so it was great to see him there. Now we’re looking forward to the next two races in the triple-header we’re building.”
Andrew Shovlin, Director of Track Engineering
“It was a solid weekend from the drivers and the whole team. We felt we could have been closer to pole than yesterday, but in the end, we didn’t have enough pace to challenge Max (Verstappen) and Lando ( Norris). Today, however, it was good to get on the podium with Lewis, with George right behind in fourth, which completed a good points haul for us.
“George had a great start and made a very impressive move on the brakes on the outside of the first turn. Lewis’ start wasn’t as good, but he did a good job of recovering in turns one and two to get back on track. fourth position”. It was quite evident that we had to work quite hard not to fall back on Verstappen and that meant we had to make our pit stops a little earlier than planned. When we got into the second stint, our focus was on making sure. We beat the Ferraris. Lewis was able to do it comfortably at the end and managed his tires well in the final stint to do the same. We are encouraged by the fact that the car performed well in Montreal and here in Barcelona. We need to find more speed to be right in front, but we are working hard on that and should be able to continue to close that gap with more developments to come.”