There was not much talk on paper in favor of either team having to follow a two-stop strategy. And in the end it is Lewis Hamilton managed to overtake precisely because of this strategy Max Verstappen. Because the young Dutchman was fighting with a blunt weapon towards the end of the race, his tires were completely destroyed and because of that in the 67th lap he had no chance to defend himself against Hamilton's collision in a silver arrow.
Toto wolff, team boss Mercedes Benz, is full of praise at the expense of his protégé and also his team. “It was a brilliant performance by a strategic team. In the morning before the race we discussed all the variants and the strategy of two stops was not very promising. But then the strategic team did the right thing. We learned the real lessons from the race in Hockenheim and everything went great at today's race."
Wolff: "Lewis was narrowing the gap behind Max and all indications were that he could overtake him on hard compound tires. However, we had brake problems, making it impossible for Lewis to drive behind Max for any longer. That left us with the only chance to take a risk. We made another stop, hoping that the middle mix would give Lewis a chance. It didn’t look good at first, but when Lewis had a win within reach, he couldn’t be held back."
The Austrian adds excitedly: "To dominate Formula 1 in that way for a while, you need a team that creates something special. This requires every single article. Of course you also need real racers and today’s Lewis show was a different dimension in my eyes. The fight against Max was great, we could see that there were two racers here with great mutual respect, because otherwise I would not have been able to chase bike after bike through corners at such a speed. A truly amazing performance by Lewis."
As much as there was joy at Hamilton’s 81st victory in Formula 1, there was also a lot of sympathy with Valtteri Bottas, who experienced a race to oblivion. Although he stood in the front row, he had to settle for eighth place in the end. “Because of that, I also didn’t jump for joy. I felt with him because after the great qualifiers he was in a very good mood before the race and he showed a lot of determination. But then it broke right at the start of the race. The contact with Lewis and Charles Leclerc led to the day being anything but happy for him. I am very sorry for him."
