Mercedes achieved their best combined starting positions of the season so far in Spain but George Russell wasn’t entirely happy how their session went.
He complained about Lewis Hamilton’s tactics when the pair began their first laps in Q3. After completing his first run he asked his race engineer Marcus Dudley: “What the fuck was Lewis doing prepping that lap?”
“We’ll talk about it afterwards,” his race engineer replied. “Head in the game.”
Russell’s preparation for his first run may have been compromised by Hamilton slowing ahead of him as they completed their out-lap. However the pair were being caught by drivers behind them on flying laps, and Hamilton would have risked a penalty had he not moved out of their way.
Several drivers were also trying to take advantage of the opportunity presented by starting a lap immediately behind a car which was completing one. By using the slipstream of another car through the final corner and onto the start/finish straight, a driver could gain a useful speed boost. Max Verstappen did this when his team mate Sergio Perez completed his final lap in Q3.
In the case of the Mercedes drivers, Hamilton led Russell out of the garage and around their out-lap. As they reached the final sector, Esteban Ocon caught Russell, and the Mercedes driver let him by at the exit of turn 12.
Hamilton was nearing the end of his lap at this point and faced the option of committing to start it – and potentially getting in Ocon’s way, or letting the Alpine through and trying to use its slipstream. He chose the latter, but had to slow down significantly through the final two corners. He picked up the throttle in time to chase Ocon through the final corner and across the line, where the Alpine driver immediately backed off and pulled off the racing line.
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When Russell rounded the penultimate corner he could see Ocon ahead on the racing line and Hamilton letting him by. He had no option but to slow down as well, but he now had Carlos Sainz Jnr not far behind. He therefore had to do what Hamilton did, slowing between the last two corners, and picking up a slipstream from the Ferrari.
It wasn’t an ideal start to the lap for either driver, as their careful tyre warm-up would have been disrupted by the slow progress through the last two corners. However both were able to cancel some of that out by picking up slipstreams from other drivers.
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