Barcelona - Catalunya GP

Lewis Hamilton wins his first Grand Prix for Ferrari. If there is one headline for the Barcelona Grand Prix, this would be it but it hardly does justice to the racing masterclass with a bit of luck that gave Hamilton the victory. It was expected that Hamilton might pip Russell to take the lead at Turn 1 but that was not to be. While Hamilton had the slightly better start Russell did enough to ensure he stayed in front of Hamilton and his team mate. He looked to be in control in a couple of laps comfortably staying 2 seconds in front of Hamilton. 

Hamilton's first stop forced Mercedes into pitting Russell to cover the undercut. Russell did convey his doubts post the stop but it was done. Russell emerged into the effective lead and the pecking order was restored. 

Hamilton pitted for a second change of tyres. Switched to medium and all hell broke loose. He began banging out laps that were 1.4s faster than Russell, effectively eating... no gulping down Russell's lead. Secured the effective lead and then came the vrtual safety car, the first one for Antonelli's striken Mercedes. A VSC have Ferrari a cheap pit stop, 13s a lightbyear away from 23s for a regular stop. The final nail in the hopes of Russell's win.

Meanwhile Russell emerged just 1.4s ahead of Kimi and then began a battle between the teammates for the second podium. Russell managed to cover off Antonelli for the first few laps but eventually had to concede and the Italian passed only to pullnover to the aside due to loss in power.

Behind the leading duo Norris maintained P4 and Max P5. Max had a pretty lonely race unable to challenge for any podim positions. However Isack Hadjar after dropping 9 places fought back exhibiting good pace to climb up the ranks making overtaking on the outside of Turn 3 his own during the race. Eventually ending up in P6 where he started.

Verstappen seemed to have a lackluster race unable to challenge anyone or having anyone challenge him except for a few laps by Leclerc and Piastri. Finished P4. A lonely race by his admission.

Leclerc has been eclipsed by his teammate for the last couple of races. The implicit driver one status is slowly but surely sliding Hamilton's way and Leclerc will do good to pay attention to this. To repeat a cliche - you teammate is your greatest competitor and the fact that all champions are ruthless... Leclerc has to do to Hamilton what he did to Vettel in 2019 where within the first few races Ferrari began to treat him on par with Vettel. Get in close and take the fight to Hamilton just like Kimi is doing to Russell.