Hamilton and Mercedes decided to go out with medium tires in the Spanish GP race this Sunday, and the Englishman, with the yellow Pirelli, was surrounded by pilots with the red (soft). Thus he struggled in the first corners until a touch with Magnussen ‘s Haas sent him to the back of the grid after a forced passage through the pits.
From there, more than 30 seconds from the penultimate and more than 50 from the leader, the seven-time champion managed to come back. With a series of overtaking and a good three-stop strategy that included a final run on softs, he was able to overtake Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz on the track in the final stage.
Finally he would lose fourth place to the Spaniard from Ferrari when a water leak forced him to slow down, and he reached the finish line fifth.
The comeback tasted like glory to Lewis Hamilton, who defined it “like a victory”. In fact, he assured that “in reality most of the time coming back feels better than a victory, when you come from so far and have been through so much”.
Elated, Hamilton revealed that a conversation with a terminally ill girl on Saturday had inspired him for Sunday’s race. Formula 1 this weekend tested robots that moved around the paddock and that with their screen allowed pilots and children in hospitals to approach, a brilliant initiative that received multiple accolades.
In them, Hamilton had a special encounter: “In the end, there was quite a bit of adversity in this race, starting from so far back,” he said.
“There was a girl that I spoke to on Saturday, who was my little inspiration. Isla, a five-year-old girl who is terminally ill and who said to me: can you win the race for me tomorrow?”
“I told her I didn’t know if she could win the race, but she was going to give it her all. So hopefully, that was a bit of a win, and I dedicate it to her.”
(Enjoy the summary of the 2022 Spanish GP of F1 before continuing)
Looking ahead to this weekend, Mercedes introduced a series of updates to its W13, and although in qualifying they did not finish convincing Hamilton , they gave their result in the race.
In fact, the #44 believes that without his touch with Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap of the race, he might even have struggled with the Red Bulls, who finished first and second this Sunday.
“The race pace was much better,” he celebrated. “It was much better in the long runs thanks to the updates.”
“This is a great sign that we are going in the right direction,” said Hamilton.
“I have no doubt that at some point we will be able to [challenge for wins again] because this time, if I hadn’t had that touch, I would have been fighting with the Red Bulls.”
“That gives me great hope that at some point we will be fighting for victory.”
After the contact with Magnussen, still on lap 1, Hamilton asked Mercedes over the radio if it would not be better to save his car’s engine, but from the wall they told him that he could still be eighth. Before the press he explained that the experience of other races made him think that it would be impossible to reach the points.
Finally, Hamilton left an admittedly enigmatic message, claiming that Mercedes had “experienced something” in team-mate George Russell’s car and that it “ultimately ended up being the best way to do qualifying”, meaning that he “probably I would assume that” at the next race, at the Monaco GP .
