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Mercedes pitted Hamilton a second time and let him chase down Verstappen who couldn’t defend on his old tyres. The win in Spain came after another aggressive strategy. Mercedes looked to be getting back on top of things with wins at Portugal and Spain. At the restart, some great driving got him all the way back into second place behind Verstappen. The red flag allowed Mercedes to repair the damage and wipe out the lap Hamilton was behind.
#MERCEDES F1 2021 DRIVERS#
Both drivers are effectively Mercedes drivers anyway. There were a lot of words said after the race about who was to blame, but this died down soon after.
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One tyre on the grass and Russell was put into a spin taking both cars out in a huge crash. Bottas was having a dreadful race down in 10 th place when George Russell attempted an overtake in the damp conditions. That was until a very timely red flag occurred. Hamilton ended up over a lap behind Verstappen and out of the points by time he got back on track. That was until a mistake from Hamilton saw him slide off track, tapping the wall. An aggressive pass from Verstappen had Hamilton in second place but he began to gain time back through the race. Mercedes knew right here they were going to have a fight this season!įor the second race in Imola, again it was Verstappen and Hamilton fighting at the front. Verstappen did go off track trying to pass and overheated his tyres which let Hamilton take the first win of the season. Only an incredibly aggressive strategy and some great tyre management from Hamilton kept them ahead of the charging Red Bull.