F1 Report: Lewis Hamilton 'resilience' praised after Spain win

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Natalie Pinkham is joined by Technical Analyst Craig Scarborough and former Ferrari and McLaren engineer Pat Fry to review the Spanish GP.

Lewis Hamilton's "resilience" is an important part of his Formula 1 armoury and played a role in his return to top form at the Spanish GP, according to this week's F1 Report guests.

Although the reigning champion won the previous race in Azerbaijan to take the lead of the title race for the first time in 2018, Hamilton said he had been fortunate to do so and then arrived at Barcelona a fortnight later admitting he was "punching below my weight".

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But a dominant weekend showing in Spain, when he followed up pole position with a 20-second victory in the race, has seen him open a 17-point lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship.

"He bounces back from those low weekends that he has. He does have them through the season but the next race he can win and he does have that resilience," said F1 technical analyst Craig Scarborough.

"That's one of the things that has allowed him to win these championships, he does get down but he comes back up straight again thereafter."

Veteran F1 engineer Pat Fry, a former colleague of Hamilton's at McLaren between 2007 and 2010, praised the world champion's performance and suggested F1's return to the Circuit de Catalunya may have been particularly timely for the Englishman's season.

"He was certainly excellent in every single session and just had it all together," said Fry.

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"It is a track where you test at, so you know what the set-up is, and if you are struggling to understand something maybe it's a little easier to go to a track you've tested at. But he was just flying the whole weekend."

Hamilton and Mercedes' impressive turnaround is just one of many post-Spain talking points up for discussion in the latest edition of the F1 Report. Click play on the video at the top of the page to watch the show in full.

Elsewhere in the show:

• What happened to Ferrari at Barcelona and did Pirelli's change in tyres have anything to do with it?
• Daniel Ricciardo broke the track's lap record - so did Red Bull have the pace to do better than third and fifth?
• What now for Romain Grosjean after his troubled start to the season continued?
• Technical experts Craig and Pat run the rule over the eye-catching additions to the cars at the race weekend and then the two-day test

The crown jewel in the F1 calendar returns and you can watch the Monaco GP on Sky Sports F1 from May 24-27. Get Sky Sports F1.