Hill questions Mercedes over Hamilton pit-stop decision

Former F1 champion Damon Hill has questioned why Lewis Hamilton was not left on intermediate tyres after Mercedes' strategy error at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After taking the race restart alone on a set of intermediates, Hamilton was pulled into the pits at the end of the first racing lap and dropped to the rear of the field.

The error stemmed from Mercedes decision to send the seven-time champion out on that set of tyres and not pit at the end of the 'parade lap' ahead of the restart.

"I challenge you to be in the front of a queue and decide that you will go down to halfway down the queue because it will be better in the long run," said Hill on the F1 Nation podcast.

"That is a huge thing to get over in your mind, to give up the lead position. My question is this - because he pitted immediately after one lap, how far could he have gone on intermediates before he decided to pit? How much would he have lost?

"If he had carried on going on intermediates, yes, he would have been slow and overtaken but the pack would have spread out.

"So when he pitted, he may have lost fewer places because of the natural stringing-out effect in the early laps in the race than he would have done if he had come straight into the pits and had to sit and queue and wait before he could get into the pit lane."

Hamilton fought back to finish second and take the championship lead by eight points over Red Bull's Max Verstappen into the summer break.

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