Smart pit call seals home win for Hamilton

2015 British Grand Prix summary

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Lewis Hamilton took his fifth victory of 2015 in front of his home crowd at Silverstone despite a rain shower and a strong showing from Williams.

The Williams duo led the field early on but Hamilton jumped ahead of the pair of them as they made their first pit stops. Team mate Nico Rosberg remained stuck in fourth place however, until a rain shower helped him catch and pass the two FW37s.

The rain intensified later on and Rosberg was catching Hamilton quickly, until the race leader made a well-timed switch to intermediate tyres. Rosberg did the same on the next lap, but by now Hamilton was long gone.

Sebastian Vettel also timed his pit stop well and beat the two Williams drivers to the last podium place. But Kimi Raikkonen fell to eighth after pitting too soon for intermediates.

Daniil Kvyat caught Bottas at the end of the race and crossed the line 0.7 seconds behind the Williams. The two Force Indias took points for seventh and ninth, while Fernando Alonso took his first point of the season with tenth place.

A series of first-lap incidents eliminated Jenson Button, and the two Lotus drivers, while a gearbox problem on Felipe Nasr’s car prevented him from starting.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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94 comments on “Smart pit call seals home win for Hamilton”

  1. Even Williams sabotaging the first two grid slots couldn’t get the the win :P

    1. On the formation lap there was quite a gap from Rosberg to Massa. Didn’t think much at the time but I wonder if the Mercs tyres cooled more than the Wiliams’s as they waited on the grid. Bit of a fanciful theory, tbh.

  2. The rain getting heavier saved Hamilton’s bacon. Rosberg closed the gap from 10.0 to 1.6 seconds before that, and was something like 2 seconds/lap faster in the changeable conditions. You can argue that this was payback for Monaco from Mercedes, even if it wasn’t intentional.

    1. you missed Lewis’s comment probably about losing temperature and pressure. BTW, what happened to Nico’s speed after tyre change.

      1. I don’t get how Hamilton losing temperature etc in the conditions leading to the decision to stop in any way make it less of a driver issue that Rosberg was closing in to him (because of better managing in the conditions) @vineet1658.

        Without pitting Hamilton would have been passed by Rosberg with his cold tyres. Because he pitted at exactly the right moment he got a gap. So it clearly did “save his bacon” there, exactly BECAUSE Hamilton had trouble making his tyres keep their heat.

        After the stop both were on a wet track on inters and there was no difference in pace between, but a nice and realistically unbridgeable gap of 9-10 seconds separating the cars on track.

    2. @vineet1658

      you missed Lewis’s comment probably about losing temperature and pressure.

      Lewis and Nico were on the same tyres with the same amount of laps on them in the same car, so that (loss of temperature in tyres) was probably due to the driver more than anything else.

      BTW, what happened to Nico’s speed after tyre change.

      He was 10 seconds behind with 5 laps to go (because of the huge undercut), no point in pushing.

      I just think that this talk about how incredibly unlucky Lewis has been this season because of Monaco can stop now.

      1. I agree about loss of temperature (probably because Lewis was driving cautiously, but I think it has nothing do to with Monaco and that can’t be
        undone.

        1. And yes, I missed after Nico’s pit-stop, 8 laps were remaining but, before that when Nico’s was pushing, max 12 laps were remaining. So, he could have tried after pit-stop as well ;)

    3. I struggle to find the correlation between the British GP and Monaco. Toto came out and said Hamilton pitting was his call, Nico could have made the same call and undercut Lewis and won. But correct me if I am mistaken, you are just not a Lewis fan nor impartial when it comes to all things Lewis Hamilton.

    4. @kingshark

      Wrong!!! Rosberg was lucky that the rain’s severity increased. If it hadn’t, Rosberg would’ve been stuck in 4th position, unable to overtake both Williams. He only managed to overtake the Williams because the rain increased and the Williams couldn’t handle it.

      If the race had stayed bone dry, Rosberg would’ve finished 4th. Nico was the lucky one!

      1. Or, if the rain’s severity didn’t increase, Hamilton would have been overtaken by Rosberg.

        1. But, Rosberg was only in a position to challenge Hamilton because the rain increased.

          Before the rain – Hamilton was comfortably 1st and under zero threat, Rosberg was stuck in 4th having not come close to overtaking the Williams.

          After the second bout of rain – Hamilton was still 1st but started to struggle with temp, Rosberg managed to overtake both Williams and challenge Hamilton.

          You tell me who the rain helped more?

          1. Hamilton was 1st and Rosberg was 4th because of the pit strategy.

        2. @travarse
          Rosberg’s pit stop was just 0.1 seconds faster, he’d have jumped Massa and probably ended up in front of Bottas. Hamilton was incredibly lucky to get 2 Williams cars between himself and Rosberg. As soon as Rosberg got some clean air, he was miles faster than Lewis.

          In Hamilton’s first pit stop, Merc put 2 cars between himself and Rosberg. In his 2nd pit stop, they gave him a 9 second undercut. Hamilton was very lucky this race.

          1. Wow I don’t know if we watched the same race here. The only point I remember Nico being faster is when the rain came. Regardless let’s deal with facts shall we. According to the official FIA timing screens, http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-1-world-championship/season-2015/event-timing-information-7.

            Lap 4 Lewis 1:41.877 Nico 1:42.375
            Lap 5 Lewis 1:40.474 Nico 1:40.865
            Lap 6 Lewis 1:39.765 Nico 1:39.849.

            This trend continued all the way until their pitstops- Lewis was quicker than Nico lap after lap.

            Here is the interesting bit. Lap 18 Hamilton was 7 tenths quicker than Nico on his in lap and his out lap was a massive 1,7s faster than Nico’s on Lap 20. Even Pat Symmonds described Lewis’ in and out laps as “stunning”. So, we can conclusively see that prior to the pit stops Nico was not “considerably faster” than Lewis as you claim. Both were running in dirty air at the time.

            Then from
            Lap 22-33 when Lewis was in “clean air”:
            L22 Lewis 1:37.227 Nico 1:38.303
            L23 Lewis 1:37.501 Nico 1:38.093
            and etc etc, for the next 9/10 laps Lewis was quicker than Nico with Lewis setting the fastest lap on lap 29, some 7 tenths quicker than Nico again.
            Between laps 33 and laps 37 they were trading times.

            Now here is when the rain started chucking it down and were your point can only be valid.
            L38 Lewis 1:49.338 Nico 1:48.709
            L39 Lewis 1:49.591 Nico 1:47.629
            L40 Lewis 1:43.748 Nico 1:42.769
            L41 Lewis 1:43.864 Nico 1:41.895
            L42 Lewis 1:41.184 Nico 1:39.183
            L43 Lewis 1:41.160 Nico 1:41.838.

            Only in this period was Nico “faster” than Lewis as your claim states, when both were in clean air. At this point Nico had got the assist from the rain to dispatch the two Williams’.

            After they put on the intermediates, a decision that Toto said was Lewis’ call- a decision Nico could have also made to try and “undercut” Lewis both were in clean air and the times compared as follows:

            L44 Lewis 2:09.721 Nico 1:53.679
            L45 Lewis 1:52.659 Nico 2:13.409
            L46 Lewis 1:51.473 Nico 1:51.281
            L47 Lewis 1:50.676 Nico 1:51.415
            L48 Lewis 1:50.344 Nico 1:50.889
            L49 Lewis 1:50.625 Nico 1:51.148
            L50 Lewis 1:50.510 Nico 1:51.083
            L51 Lewis 1:50.997 Nico 1:51.439
            L52 Lewis 1:52.028 Nico 1:51.223

            Again, at no point- after they both switched to intermediate tyres, did Nico look to have “more pace” than Lewis. At this point both were “running in free air”.

            I am therefore inclined to expose how wrong your opinion is of how events unfolded sir, as the FIA timing screens clearly show that for the majority of the race Lewis was in fact faster than Rosberg. Unless of course you would like to claim that the official FIA times are incorrect?

      2. Well said. It’s as if the anti-Hamilton brigade didn’t even watch the race.

    5. pastaman (@)
      6th July 2015, 1:04

      Actually you can’t argue that, since it has nothing to do with Monaco.

  3. I feel sorry for Williams. While Bottas did seem fast at first, I think his inability to pass Massa despite having DRS lap after lap shows that they made the right call to let them race and not switch their cars around and I applaud the team for allowing their guys to fight on track.

    As for the rain, it was simply a case of Hamilton and Vettel making the perfect call and Williams being just that little bit too late. In races like this, it’s so easy to get it wrong and so difficult to get it right. I think the very severe criticism they’re getting online at the moment is not fair on the team at all.

    1. Williams were hit by a heavy bag of Karma. Being faster yet finishing below the slow car. Something Ferrari did in Canada and Austria :)

      Also they didn’t have the speed in the wet.

    2. Yeah, DRS surely was helping Bottas keep close and even have a shot at Massa. Had Williams told Massa to let Bottas past then he suddenly would have had DRS and would have been able to push his teammate @willwood

      Williams was already past the pit entry by the time the rain started falling (Vettel was a further 9 seconds behind, so he was right in time to get in), much like Mercedes would not have been able to call Rosberg in immediately. Hamilton just got a bit lucky with a perfectly timed pit stop decision in this case where the cars close behind lost out.

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        5th July 2015, 15:43

        Had Williams told Massa to let Bottas past then he suddenly would have had DRS and would have been able to push his teammate

        Probably not true, @bascb.
        Firstly, Bottas let the gap widen a few times and then quickly closed it even in non-DRS zones.
        And, Bottas was a lot faster as soon as Massa pitted (Massa wasn’t actively defending the laps before that), almost enough to do the good old ‘overcut’.

        Actually, I hoped that Williams would have been smart enough to let Bottas pit together with Hamilton and undercut Massa. But as he was nowhere when the track became wet, he would have lost most positions anyway.

        1. yeah, pitting Bottas together with Hamilton would have certainly helped.

      2. Did you not see how much Bottas gained on Massa on the Maggots through Chapel corneres and the Luffield section AND between pit straight and The Loop? He was clearly faster on the Option tires without DRS.

        What intrests me is this: on that try when he got right next to Massa when he asked for permission to overtake but the “yes” call came too late, did he lift off early because of the team order? Could he have done it without the team ordering Massa to let him through?

        1. I don’t think he could have done it without team order. You cannot take too much risk with a teammate. To do it on track, he would have had to be super aggressive and ride Massa off the track, risking contact and ending both their races. Plus that would have balked his momentum and possibly Lewis could have gone by Massa as well. Bottas needed to be able to go by without lifting, without losing time to the Mercs, and without making Massa vulnerable to them. Only way to do that was Massa pulling over on the straight and letting him go by with full momentum, and then slipping into his slipstream. That kind of coordination requires working as a team. If I were Williams, I would learn from this and get both drivers clear that if the situation presents itself again, that its nothing personal, but they have to work together in the best interest of the team. And that means someone giving up his place for the good of the team strategy. The way Red Bull did with RIC and Kvyat previously.

      3. If the call for pit was that clear for Vettel, guys behind him would have pitted on the same lap. Horner: “I think the two guys that timed it to perfection were the two with experience in Lewis and Seb.”

    3. IMO Williams made the wrong call. I am a big Massa fan, but Bottas was clearly much faster than Massa at that point. The way Bottas kept closing the gap to Massa showed how much extra pace he had. Even Lewis, with his nearly one second a lap pace advantage over the Williams (in quali) was not able to come up side by side with Bottas. So how was Bottas going to go by Massa without team help? Race after race this year shows that even with significant pace advantage overtaking is nearly impossible. So the only chance for Williams was quick recognition and then acting on it by asking Massa to move over so that Bottas could go by without being balked by having to lift. The fact that Bottas could get side by side should have been clear evidence of his pace advantage and that Massa was holding up that train. Williams’ one chance in this race was to have their quicker car pull a gap with the slower car holding up the Mercs. That’s what having a team is all about– TEAMWORK– you have one car block while the other runs off into the distance. Only their faster car at that point was bottled up behind the slower one. It was their only chance, but it required quick thinking and a somewhat ruthless call to Massa. I realize it would be a difficult call to make from an intrateam relations point of view, but winning means being able to make those difficult and yes ruthless calls in the moment, on the fly. Williams didn’t and thereby put themselves in a position where they then lost yet another position and thus the podium. To win from behind, you cannot be conservative, you have to make daring calls when the opportunities present themselves. If you fail, you accept it, but at least you tried, and there are no what ifs. It seems to me that Williams are happy to come in third this year to Ferrari, and get the money for that rather than pulling out all the stops to win.

      1. You raise up some good points. Otoh, Ferrari and FI are supposed to be much closer than Mercedes and Williams, but Vettel managed to get pass Perez and his teammate actually. Then again, Raikkonen was stuck behind Hulkenberg.

  4. I wouldn’t say smart, so much as it was lucky. I mean, Lewis makes so many of these “daring” calls, that eventually some day by the theory of probability he would get it right, isn’t it? He cocky “this is the best call I ever made” attitude doesn’t help either.

    Still a strong win by him and good job on that. Shame about the Williams’ though.

    1. It helps him

    2. I agree. Hamilton’s tyre problems appeared to force him to pit at what turned into exactly the right moment. From what I could see, as he came into the pits it wasn’t raining (or at least not hard), but by the time he exited his pit box it was. If the heavy rain had arrived 1 minute later the outcome might have been different. Also, I’m note sure if Vettel’s pit stop was “well-timed”; did he pit before Hamilton or after? If it was after then it seems it was more a case of him arriving at the pit entrance once the decision had become clear.

      1. They said Vettel made the decision himself. Don’t think they were following Hamilton.

        1. To clarify, when I asked if Vettel pitted after Hamilton or before, it was to determine whether or not Vettel’s change to inters came before or after the rain. Based on the quotes that jak has included, it seems Vettel made the decision once it was already raining quite hard, at which point I think his decision was quite straight forward (and this, in my view, is where he was fortunate – Rosberg and the two Williams did not make an incorrect call (ignoring any stacking issues), they were just unfortunate that the rain came down shortly after they’d passed the pit entrance, and so they had to do almost an entire lap on slicks).

          1. If it was clear when to pit, I don’t think Kvyat or Hulkenberg (who would have been behind Vettel) would have done another lap before pitting. Horner also gave the credit to Hamilton and Vettel for their excellent timing.

          2. Listen to Vettel on how he was just ahead of Kvyat when he dived into the pits, and how he was just behind Kvyat when he got out of the pits.

      2. Sebastian Vettel:
        “Without the rain, we would not have been on the podium,” he openly conceded, “And even then, we kept our heads down, and were really patient to wait until the rain properly started to pour down. We made the right choice and came in on the perfect lap.
        “I had a bad start, although we more or less came back to fifth and six, but, by then, the gap was too big to the cars in front. Then there was some rain around turns 6-7, around Luffield, but it was only there, so it was quicker to stay out on dries. It was a tough call to make as, if it rains, yes there were already some cars that were pitting and you obviously think about it but, if the circuit is largely dry, there is no point.
        “Then I came out of Chapel and, coming down Hangar Straight, I noticed a lot more rain – I was trying to look at the clouds for some laps before and it was significantly more intense then, not just drizzle but proper rain – so I decided to box. When I was in the box, I was told that the leader had decided to pit as well, so I though ‘okay, it was a good call’.”
        Asked whether he had lucked into a top three finish on a weekend where Ferrari clearly had the fifth and sixth best cars, Vettel insisted that there was no fortune involved in the crucial decision.
        “It’s not a Christmas gift,” he claimed, “Santa Claus wasn’t there on the way into the pits, and he didn’t tell me which lap to dive into the pits either. It was our decision and, obviously, not a lot of people got it right. That was our choice and it’s what we achieved today.”
        http://www.crash.net/f1/news/220815/1/podium-no-christmas-gift-for-vettel.html

    3. @Himmat – doesn’t help what? Do you think he made the comment so you can like him? Some fans really do overestimate their importance.

  5. The move of the race was Hamilton on the first pit stop getting the undercut on Williams by pitting first. That set up the rest of the race for him and put him in the position for the second stop which was quite fortuitous.

    1. Yeah. Great moves by the pit crew.

  6. I hoped that spiced things up a bit!!
    Watched last 5 laps on German TV no idea of the details if battles but saw the 2 Williams fly up the middle at the start!!

  7. credit has to clearly go to Peter Bonnington (Lewis race engineer) and the rest of the Mercedes crew.
    fantastic pit stop strategy and great pit work.
    great to see Bonnington collecting the Mercedes trophy

    1. credit has to clearly go to Peter Bonnington (Lewis race engineer) and the rest of the Mercedes crew.
      Why?

  8. Rosberg clearly had the pace but Hamilton was just lucky:
    a) because the rain came at the perfect time for Lewis
    b) because of Mercedes pit stop system which lost Nico about 10/11 secs
    If the rain came 1 LAP LATER Nico would have WON the race!
    Trust me!

    1. Rosberg needed just 0.1s to win the race. If Massa’s first pitstop was 0.1 or even 0.05 seconds slower, Rosberg would’ve been 2nd, and probably would have been quite close to Lewis, and passed him when the downpour came. To think, 0.1 seconds is ALL he needed.

      1. Loooooool! You both should either apply for Rosbergs seat, apply as one of his pit crews. I’m sure between you two, you would have found that 0.1 sec for him!

        1. @kbdavies I would just do a Arrivabene in front of Massa as he leaves the pits. Job done! Forget 0.1s, I just won Rosberg 1s.

      2. I think you could also argue Rosberg was fortunate it rained at all. Had it not rained it looks like it would have been Massa and Bottas on the podium with Hamilton, as he didn’t appear able to pass the Williams in dry conditions.

        1. Rain is something which is out of their control, strategy isn’t.

          1. The speed of the other team’s pit stop is also out of their control.

    2. How many times this season have we seen Rosberg storm up behind Hamilton and then Hamilton controls the gap after that? Why do you believe that Hamilton was going flat out at that point? It seems very silly to point to one moment in the race when Rosberg was going faster and infer from it that he would have overtaken Lewis (something Rosberg seems incapable of doing) and gone on to win the race?

      Why can’t people just congratulate Lewis for a solid drive and win without the bitter comments?

      1. Lewis controls the pace. I doubt he would let a 7s gap close down to a 2s one. I truly believe Lewis wasn’t able to generate the same temperature as Rosberg was in his tyres.

        1. There’s a fine balance between finding sec a lap and gravel trap in those conditions.
          Rosberg in 4th place had more incentive to push and explore the track and as it turns out it paid off, had it been a bit more wet he could have crashed out. Lewis in his position, was rightly more cautious.

    3. Before the rain, did Nico make an impression on Lewis at all? If it had not rained, in all probability the Williams cars would have finished ahead of Nico. Why are you ignoring that possibility?

    4. It’s not all luck. Ultimately, Hamilton out qualified Rosberg which meant he kept ahead and had first call on pit.

      So easy to say it was all luck, harder to see the weekend as a whole.

    5. if if if if if.
      Whingers!

      Without rain Rosberg wouldn’t even have been close to start with!

    6. If the rain came 1 LAP LATER Nico would have WON the race!

      No he wouldn’t have. Rosberg admitted he thought Hamilton was wrong to pit when he did and would never have thought of not staying out. IF the rain had come a lap later and IF Hamilton still pitted when he did (which is doubtful) then Rosberg would have STILL stayed out a lap too long and STILL lost 10+ seconds to Hamilton and STILL been behind him come the end of the race.

      Also I hope you see how SILLY it is to start putting some WORDs in all CAPITALS in your sentences :)

      Trust me!

      Hahaha

  9. Even though Williams wouldn’t have won the race nonetheless, I don’t know why they didn’t pit Massa when Mercedes asked Hamilton to “Box this lap”. I mean, I was shouting at Williams to pit Massa immediately after the call came through the team radio, but it seems a room full of the best engineers in the world can’t crack that code. Well, if anybody has Pat Symond’s number, I’d be happy to join Williams to shout at the engineers for their flawed thinking :)

    1. I second you on that..get the job, travel the world shouting at William’s engineers…they can do any worse..they basically suck at strategy..apply today, please.

    2. A few laps before that Mercedes tried to bait Williams by acting like they were going to pit but didn’t.

      1. @trubulu That’s true, but this time they asked the driver to pit. If Hamilton pit, then great. If not, then Williams would get the undercut. There was really no other way (than the one they chose) that Merc could’ve passed them during the pit-stop phase (considering similar pit times)

  10. Hmm…
    Lewis makes an inspired decision and it pays off, but people say it was luck. Yet when his team mates Button/Rosberg have made similar calls they are labelled smart/strategic geniuses.

    It must be because Hamilton is stupid and the aforementioned are “smarter” than him…right?

    1. Yes, of course it is. You really have to wonder whats between most people ears. Just giving a driver his right dues is simply too much of an ask.

    2. My initial reaction was that he messed up the call and it was another classic Lewis blunder, but credit where it’s due, he was the smartest guy on the track today (at least in that quartet anyway). But the blind hatred some people have for him gets in the way of seeing sense.

    3. I think it depends on the nature of the call. I think two factors made this one more a question of chance than decision making

      1. As far as I could see, it hadn’t actually started raining meaningfully as Hamilton entered the pits, so the track wasn’t read for inters when the call to come in was made.
      2. It seems his tyres had dropped off, forcing him to make the stop when he did.

      However, to avoid accusations of being anti-Hamilton (I’m not particularly fussed either way), it’s also true that had it not rained at all, he would have won the race fairly comfortably, probably from the two Williams, with Rosberg in fourth, so I don’t think it’s fair to describe Hamilton’s win as lucky overall.

      1. I was sat in Club Corner and as Lewis came in to the pits you could see the rain on the track. Every driver who didn’t get in that lap inc Williams was scuppered and drove very cautiously into the corner. I could hear on Silverstone radio that they were reporting other parts of the track were much worse especially up at Woodcote.

        It wasn’t a gamble, Raikkonnen gambled with a poor decision wrecked his interns and then span on international pit straight.

        My observation is that Lewis was cautious in the difficult conditions prior to the stop but visibly extended his lead on the inters for the first few laps.

    4. Because the call was lucky. What else could he have done? If he had left it one more lap, he would have been behind Rosberg and not had the first call on the strategy. He was backed into a corner, and that was the logical call to make under the circumstances.

      1. Was Nico not “lucky” that the rain came? He was also backed into a corner, in 4th place.

      2. And I know Rosberg was lucky too that it rained because it allowed him to overtake Massa and Bottas. Doesn’t change the fact that Hamilton was lucky as well with the call.

        1. Well, at least you are consistent with your reasoning. Hamilton was lucky, so was Nico, so was Vettel. End off.

  11. What a lot of people forget is the message before the rain. Hamilton asked if he should build a gap and the answer was we need to get to the end. However rosberg was givin the message push as hard as you can, I think this gave him higher temperatures and better grip with the little rain whereas hamilton had cooler tyres and couldnt get them on the right temperature

    1. Astute call 👍

    2. Renan Martinuzzo
      5th July 2015, 15:52

      Hamilton was on a single stopper while Rosber was set to have two pitstops, thus the different commands between the drivers.

      1. I think he just explains the pace difference in the changeable conditions, because rosberg was pushing and had more temperature

      2. No the 2 stopper was “Plan B” for Rosberg.

  12. It looked like it was Monaco all over again when he went to the pits with so few laps to the flag.
    But then Vettel too went for inters, and it was clear it was raining enough.

    One of them making a bad call can happen sometimes. Both making a bad call at the same time is much more difficult to happen.

    And Williams again with poor timing losing to Ferrari on a race they were much faster. A shame.
    In fact, the rain ruined what was an quite interesting race. With Kvyat racing Vettel and Rosberg the Williams.

  13. Hamilton’s call today reminds me of Button’s call at Melbourne 2010, of course both races they ended up winning. Both Jenson and Lewis took a gamble that basically they were forced into. If Lewis had stayed out one more lap he probably wouldn’t have been leading the next time round, such was Rosberg’s speed advantage in the changeable conditions. He got very lucky today, in that it started bucketing down with rain literally the moment he had changed to inters. Maybe a bit of karmic payback after Monaco.

    1. How does this comment make any sense? Rosberg was pushing because he was on a Plan B (2 stopper). Lewis was on a one stopper and had been told to make his tyres last till the end – so of course, he was driving slower which led to a loss of temperature.. Do you really think Rosberg is 2secs/lap faster than Lewis in ANY condition?? And that he would have overtaken him on the track?? And if he was so fast on the slicks, how come he came out 4th a lap later??? Sigh…

  14. A few points.
    a/ “Lewis was lucky”. So was Nico in Monaco. Yet these same people claimed “It’s motor racing”/. Well, let’s be consistent shall we? Today was motor racing.
    b/ Nico Rosberg. Prior to the rain, Nico made no impression on Lewis. You could easily claim it was Nico who was lucky the rain came because had it continued to be bone dry he would have finished behind the two Williams. I hear no hoo haaa about that?
    c/ Vettel. Was he also not lucky that the rain came? He goes on inters early and he is a genius. Lewis follows suit and he is lucky.

    Let’s be honest. Lewis seems to be judged by a different set of rules to the rest and it really baffles me.

  15. Hamilton call was perfect, Vettel’s too. Both said the same thing, that they could see that the rain was getting heavier and was the time to stop.
    The rest is just bitterness. That same call if made by Alonso or Button would be hailed as genius.

    1. I assume the TV coverage didn’t effectively show how bad the conditions on track were at the time Lewis and Seb went into the pits.

      1. @ju88sy True, rain on TV always looks a lot less than the actual conditions. It looked pretty dry when it started yet they had already slowed by 4 seconds a lap.

    2. Yeah. Lewis might have been kinda forced into the decision because of Rosberg, which reminded me of Malaysia with Vettel right at his heels, but in the end they (Vettel&Hamilton) made a spot on decision that got them further up the grid. They are both very good in the wet anyway. So it was exciting to watch.

      1. Lewis said he made the call based on the rain getting worse. The team said he made the call. Some fans at the track claim he made the call, as the rain was visibly worse, BUT the armchair experts determine he was “lucky” and he was “forced” into it. How sad can people get when they cant give a driver simple dues? Is it really that hard?

        1. What’s your problem? Are you saying that to me? It’a bit moot since I gave the credit to drivers as they were the ones who made the decision. Whether it had a hint of a gamble in it since he was caught up by Rosberg is not the main point here. Rosberg pitted late and he even thought it was too early to pit, unlike the other two. Full credit to Hamilton along with Vettel.

  16. Wait. “Hamilton was lucky”? I thought it’s Nico who is lucky the rain came and saved his beacon from 4th to 2nd.

  17. It was a desperate call, rather than a smart one. He pitted because he panicked, seeing how Rosberg was reeling him in. It’s just by a pure random luck that it started raining heavily just as he was leaving the pits. At the time he pitted, it was still too early for inters.

    1. Was Nico lucky in Monaco?

    2. “It was a desperate call, rather than a smart one. He pitted because he panicked, seeing how Rosberg was reeling him in.”

      Rosberg was on a 2 stopper.

    3. Yup. It was so early, that the rain started falling harder at the EXACT time he came for inters. And so early, his team mate had to come in a lap later. And so early, the 2nd guy on the podium came in a lap before.
      But you know this because you were in the car with all of them. You really have to wonder about the mental age of some people here.

  18. And God Said “Let there be Rain” !!!! What more can Lewis and Vettel ask for ?

    Luck is when Preparation Meets Opportunity … How true !!!!

    It is true with the careers of these 2 kids Lewis and Sebastian. They both are at the right place at the right time. Both were in in McLaren and Red Bull in their good days and moved on at the right point of time.

    Good Race by Lewis. What a start by Massa !!! Feel sad for Williams. They had deserved a better finishing position than this. But they are a big Threat for Ferrari. Their pace in the race should have Ferrari worried. And Bottas is most probably bound for Ferrari next year.

    Though Luck for Rosberg …Pit Stop Taketh and Pit Stop Giveth !!!!

    1. and Oh Yeah Alonso finished 10th out of 13 finishers ….That means a POINT !!!!!! WOW !!!!

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