Mercedes was faster in the corners than Red Bull Racing in Qatar

Andrew Shovlin explains in the Race Debrief of Mercedes explains why Lewis Hamilton was so much faster in Qatar than Max Verstappen. This time it wasn't speed on the straights, but the corners where Mercedes' W12 was fast.

By a wide margin, Hamilton crossed the finish line at the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday. It was a dominant win for the Briton, who had at his disposal a strong package from Mercedes. In a new video, Mercedes' Trackside Engineering Director explains why Lewis was so fast.

Win for Hamilton

''If you think about it in a very fundamental sense, you make your lap time from a combination of the straight line where drivers are full throttle and the performance in the corners. Now in some recent tracks, we have been matching Red Bull in the corners and extracting a benefit in the straight line. But in Qatar, it ended up being the opposite,'' says Shovlin.

The Mercedes engineer points to two things why they suddenly gained ground in the corners. ''First of all, there's the aerodynamics for this race and our package that obviously worked well, but it's also the balance of the car that you have to fine-tune. Our drivers had a balance here that they were very happy with. They had stability, they could really attack the corner and they took the speed into the corner. You saw the demonstration of that in Hamilton's pole lap," concludes Shovlin.