Lewis Hamilton was happy to drive all day as he felt “in a different zone” en route to victory at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Briton took yet another step towards his seventh Formula 1 crown as he led every lap claim to his fourth win of 2020 and fourth straight triumph in Barcelona.
It was the perfect race from Hamilton, who managed the pace initially on the soft compound tyre before unleashing it in the second half, beating Max Verstappen by 24 seconds over the finish line.
A finish line, he admits he didn’t even notice.
“I was just in a daze out there. I was in a different zone, I felt really good,” said the Mercedes driver.
“Fantastic effort from the team, but God, it felt good out there today. It was a real surprise because we had this problem with the tyres. Management was very, very good.
“That’s ultimately our understanding of what happened last week, that we brought into this weekend, has inevitably enabled us to do what we did today
“I didn’t even know it was the last lap at the end. That’s how zoned in I was. I was ready to keep going.”
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Lewis’ performance was hailed by team boss Toto Wolff, who revealed the key role the 35-year-old had in shaping his race.
“At the moment, Hamilton drives in a league of his own,” he commented.
“He has it totally under control. He switched back on the engine to save some mileage for races that will be more difficult and the most special thing for me at the end was, we were ready to put softs on at the second stop and it was the logical choice, but Lewis said ‘don’t give me the softs, give me the mediums’.
“You can see now that the softs lost Valtteri [Bottas]’s race. We put the softs on Valtteri and logically he would have caught up on Verstappen and you at least have a fight but the tyre had no grip.
“Lewis just had an absolutely instinctive understanding.”
Hamilton alluded to that tyre call during his post-race remarks, revealing his methodology.
“It’s something I studied very hard before the race, understanding what tyres we were going to be using and what strategy we were going to do,” he explained.
“As I came to understand, I could make the tyres last longer than we had planned. I was even looking potentially going for a one-stop, but I think the strategy we have was just right.
“At the end, there was no need to take a risk of going on the soft tyre. I had a fresh, brand new medium tyre that I think was best.
“I just want to say a big, big thank you to all of the guys back at the factory, through this really difficult time,” he added. “For everyone in the world just to continue on, and keep pushing.”
For the Mercedes boss though the celebrations were also made a little sweeter as he stumbled across Red Bull’s Christian Horner under the podium.
“You know when you have such a great win, you can properly rub it in,” he told Sky Sports.
“There is still a rivalry but I respect Christian and he has done a great job over the 15 years he has been in the sport.
“What makes me the happiest is after the difficult weekend in Silverstone on very hot tarmac we have been able to recover, take the right conclusions and win in the same conditions. And that comes down to the great work being done in the factory.
“From the aero team to the simulation guys, everybody at the engineering side, it shows the strength of the team.”
Hamilton’s win was the 88th of his F1 career, moving him to within three of the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher.