“That’s what lost the race” - Toto Wolff concedes strategy cost Lewis Hamilton likely win
Hamilton finished just two seconds behind 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen at the Circuit of the Americas൲, closing in rapidly in the final laps.
Mercedes did have track position over Red Bull in the first stint but didn’t react to V🐼erstappen’s💫 undercut at the end of Lap 17.
It seemed that Mercedes were unsure about committing to a one-stop♍ or two-stop, ultimately♕ stopping a few laps later.
Hamilton rejoined ༒six seconds behind Verstappen and struggled to bridge that gap until the cl♔osing phase of the race when they switched to the mediums.
Speaking to Sky after the race, Wolff ꦐsaid: “No, the hindsight is a tough thing because you can see if we covered Max we had the quicker car at that stage but we didn’t know.
“Dragging out to a one-stop was a valid thi🐼ng at that stage but we lost so much time over two l💛aps. That’s what lost the race.”
Explaining Mercedes’ indecision, Wolff added: “We were on Lap 19 or 20 and we needed to extend it until Lap 23 to make t♎he one-stop stick. He stops, Max stops for a clear two-stop and we knew we just needed four more laps to go 🐬with a one-stop. He was 20 seconds behind us and then the tyre just dropped and we lost the gap.”
“Everything went a little bit against us. Toug🉐h fighting with Ricciardo w💝ho came out on the soft, quickest lap and feisty Norris. That is how it goes.
“That lap was two seconds slower than the previous one and the one after and then you expect defe෴nding, and with Ricciardo it was 1.5s. You know fair doos.”
Regardless, it was a positive weekend for Mercedes, who intro🎃duced a significant floor upgrade in Austin.
“Painful,” Wolff concluded. “The upgrade is working. Super step which was a direction that we were hoping that would actജually make it stick more and it does, and directionally I think a very good sign.”
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