Hamilton thought about ignoring Mercedes’ second F1 pit stop call in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton admits he did think about ignoring Mercedes’ call to pit him for a second time in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.
1st place Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W12.
1st place Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W12.
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Hamilton was running on five laps fresher medium tyres while running behind Max Verstappen after the first round of pit stops.

With Hamilton being unable to overtake, Mercedes called him in again on Lap 42 with a 20 plus second deficit to make up on Verstappen.

The seven-time champion overtook Verstappen with six laps remaining to claim his fifth consecutive victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

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Reflecting on yet another victory, Hamilton praised Mercedes for its “good gamble”.

“I feel great after this. I feel like we can go again. Obviously the training is working and paying off. Such a close start. There was a lot of rubber down on the right-hand side and the Red Bull got a great start, after that just hunting.

“I was so close for so long and I didn’t think in doing that I was going to make the tyres last but I just managed to keep them in somehow. It was a long way to come back from, 20 odd seconds back but it was a good gamble, a really great strategy by the team.”

Hamilton revealed Mercedes deliberately saved an extra set of medium tyres in case it opted for a two-stop strategy, even though the one-stop strategy was potentially favourable given the difficulties in overtaking at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

“It had been the plan all weekend for us to make sure we had two mediums to be able to do a two-stop,” Hamilton added. ”A one-stop potentially looked better. I know from experience here, a one-stop is very, very hard to pull off.

“As soon as we had the pace we had, I knew as soon as I could get past him if I could. I was about to… I think I had a shot of getting past him before I pitted right at the end and I was really conflicted.

“Like do I come in or do I ignore the call and stay out. I obviously did what the team asked and naturally because there’s a great trust between us. Just a remarkable job by everyone here in this team through and through. What a day!”

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