Was a different strategy for Verstappen possible? "Winning still very difficult"

Track position is everything at the Circuit de Catalunya. The driver who starts on pole position even has a higher average win rate than the pole-sitter of the Monaco Grand Prix. It would, therefore, be a very difficult challenge for Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen to beat Lewis Hamilton in Spain.

But would it have been possible with a different strategy? For example by qualifying on a different tyre, as in Silverstone. "It would have been a more risky strategy than last week. The soft tyres were 0.7 seconds faster than the medium tyre. The gap between Verstappen and the number ten on the same tyre in Q2 was only 0.648 seconds. So the plan would have failed and Verstappen would have had to start from midfield," Mark Hughes argues at Formula1.com.

A tricky task

"But let's just say that Verstappen had succeeded and at the start he still managed to overtake Valtteri Bottas for P2, as he did on the soft tyres. The medium tyre could then be pushed harder, without overheating the tyre. If Hamilton was going to accelerate from lap ten, Verstappen might have gone with him," the F1 analyst continues.

"And then what? To get in front and take track position over Mercedes would have been very difficult. The best evidence suggests that Verstappen and Red Bull Racing may have achieved the maximum result on Sunday. And we have also learned that Mercedes doesn't automatically have trouble with the tyres when it gets hot outside," concludes Hughes.