The "shock" that gave Mercedes its edge back in Spain

After Max Verstappen's surprise victory in the 70th Anniversary GP, Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton reasserted the natural order with a dominant Spanish GP performance that showed they had put the lessons learned at Silverstone to good use.

Alex Kalinauckas Aug 17, 2020, 11:36 AM

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Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes didn't automatically think they'd win the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix - and certainly not in the manner in which they ultimately did. One week on from Max Verstappen's stunning victory for Red Bull in the 70th Anniversary GP, the reigning champion squad had arrived at the Barcelona track eager to make up for its defeat and looking to put the lessons it had learned as a result into practice.

Indeed, the team hadn't taken a day off - according to team boss Toto Wolff - as they sought to understand the manner of their first defeat of the season "in the office", despite the punishing 2020 schedule meaning the Spanish race was the end of a second triple header, with a third looming.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.