The first five races of the season delivered some great racing but fans have rebelled against a Spanish GP that had next to no surprises.
Mercedes' dominance has continued with Lewis Hamilton claiming yet another victory in the Spanish Grand Prix in a 66-lap race that had few surprises.
Hamilton claimed his fifth Spanish Grand Prix win, as he became the 22nd driver out of 30 races to go from pole position to the top of the podium at the Barcelona track.
It was his 156th podium, going one ahead of Michael Schumacher's record but fans were still not happy after a rather predictable race.
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The win never seemed in doubt with Hamilton winning the race by 24 seconds to Red Bull's Max Verstappen and 44 seconds to Valtteri Bottas.
The leading drivers lapped everyone else on track in a dominant display.
Sadly though, the complete domination detracted from another masterful performance from Hamilton as he once again made history.
Fans pointed to the decision for tyre supplier Pirelli to go to a harder compound as an issue as the tyre problems that have marred the last two weeks of racing barely received a mention.
While Verstappen had some issues that led to some cranky battles with his team, it barely impacted the race.
"These tyres have nothing left," he said on team radio before his first pit. "Do I have to repeat it again? This tyre is dead."
He then admonished his team for telling him how Hamilton was going with his race engineer telling him: "Keep your head down Max, please."
In the 42nd lap, arguably the most interesting thing happened with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc spinning out when his engine turned off.
When he couldn't turn it back on, he took his seatbelt off before the engine restarted. He then limped back to the garage for his first mechanical retirement.
There was more history than Hamilton's podium record as well with Kimi Raikkonen claiming the record for having driven the most distance in F1 history.
Another record for Kimi, achieving the longest distance raced in an @F1 car (83,846 km)! ðŸ†
— Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN (@alfaromeoracing) August 16, 2020
That's more than 2 full laps of the Earth! 🌎 + 🌎 pic.twitter.com/fNqCa9lfsV
But fans were not happy with the race, taking to social media to share a big yawn for another one-sided result. Even the threat of rain was unable to add intrigue to proceedings.
Ars Technica journalist Jonathan Gitlin tweeted: "This was a bad race, F1."
Canadian motorsport journalist Jeff Pappone commented: "F1 can keep Barcelona as a test track, but it's horrible for racing..."
After two major crashes rocked the Moto2 and MotoGP races, evo India magazine editor Sirish Chandran posted: "MotoGP should not preceed F1. Anti climax..."
Welsh TV presenter Gareth Jones said: "I think slow-mo chess might be even more exciting than a race at Circuit de Catalunya" after one of his followers was looking for entertainment in the snooker.
MTV India presenter Nikhil Chinapa also said: "I think Pirelli brought a harder compound tire to this weekend, compared to Silverstone last weekend. Ended up making the race super boring."
.@F1 is known for a lot of things but competitive balance has never been one of them. @LewisHamilton absolutely destroys the field (again) in the #SpanishGP
— Todd Fuhrman (@ToddFuhrman) August 16, 2020
Mercedes having their own private party. Verstappen a gate crasher. No one else invited. #F1
— Mark Gallagher (@_markgallagher) August 16, 2020
Hamilton wins the Spanish GP by a mile. 39 consecutive points finishes. 88 wins in F1.
— Ben Hunt (@benjhunt) August 16, 2020
Mega job from Verstappen to split the Mercedes in second.
Bottas in third - not good enough from the Finn.
But a win is a win and Hamilton was happy with the points, which put him in the box seat for a seventh world championship title and in sight of Schumacher's most race wins record (he is currently three wins behind).
"I was just in a daze, I felt really good out there today," he said. "We had this problem with the tyres, and an understanding of what happened last week enabled us to get that result today - the strategy we had was just right.
"I didn't even realise what lap it was - I was ready to keep going."
For Aussie fans, Daniel Ricciardo's bad weekend continued. He fell from 13th to 11th on the grid, narrowly missing out on points as he got close to McLaren's Lando Norris in 10th but ultimately didn't have the opportunity to overtake on the closing laps.
SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT
1st: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2nd: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
3rd: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
4th: Lance Stroll (Racing Point)
5th: Sergio Perez (Racing Point)
6th: Carlos Sainz (McLaren)
7th: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
8th: Alexander Albon (Red Bull)
9th: Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
10th: Lando Norris (McLaren)
Charles Leclerc is the first driver out of the race after his car's engine inexplicably cut out.
He somehow got the car going again but it was clear that it was all over.
F1 reporter Luke Smith revealed the issue.
"On Charles’ car the power unit switched off suddenly due to an electrical problem, the cause of which we need to investigate," he wrote.
The Spanish heat is set to cause major issues with Max Verstappen complaining of early issues with his tyre.
It led to some entertaining radio chatter as the Dutchman demanded to go in the pits.
After several discussion, Verstappen had had enough.
"These tyres have nothing left," he says on team radio.
"Do I have to repeat it again? This tyre is dead!"
His team then put in a remarkable 1.9 second pit stop
When he came back on track, the team were telling Verstappen about Hamilton's progess and the 22-year-old had enough.
"How about we just focus on our race first instead of looking to Lewis? Clearly on the soft tyre we were not as fast as them," he said.
"So let's do our job, and let them do their job."
The engineer replied: "Keep your head down Max, please."
For Valtteri Bottas, Karun Chandhok said "They're on the radio to Valtteri Bottas every lap, telling him how's he doing and on what corners he's overheating."
Tyres and overheating will be the game in this race.
20 laps in, it's as expected.
While Valtteri Bottas missed the start, he quickly pushed back up to third behind Lewis Hamilton in first and Max Verstappen in second.
Otherwise, not much has happened in sweltering conditions in Spain.
Lewis Hamilton has had most of the last seven years to himself at the front of the F1 world.
Leading Mercedes to six straight constructors championships where he's won five world titles, and seems destined for a Michael Schumacher equalling seventh world championship with only Max Verstappen and teammate Valtteri Bottas within striking distance.
But the one driver to beat him in the past six seasons, former teammate Nico Rosberg, has given a blueprint for Bottas and Verstappen to get the better of Hamilton.
“To beat Hamilton you have to get inside his head, because he is not that strong there,” the 2016 World Champion told Sky Italia.
“Bottas has to do this, even if it seems to me that he has difficulty.
“He (Bottas) even called me but then maybe the team asked him not to ask me.”
Rosberg said he had to get a harder skin to end his teammate's dominance.
“I was too kind at the start of the rivalry with Lewis, I learned to get a little tougher," he said.
“He has to do the same too, it’s too easy to overtake him. It has to improve there.”
Let the mind games begin.
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