"Dangerous" Hamilton tyres led to "inevitable" Mercedes pit stop - Horner

Christian Horner believes Mercedes was forced into an "inevitable" pit stop for Lewis Hamilton due to the "dangerous" nature of his tyres during the Turkish Grand Prix.

After extending his stint for 50 laps on balding intermediate rubber, Hamilton pitted for a new set of the same compound with eight laps remaining and was unable to mount a challenge on Sergio Perez or Charles Leclerc for an unlikely podium.

The British driver was frustrated with the late call to pit and asked by Sky Sports F1 for his views on the Mercedes' strategy, Horner said: "I am not on their pit wall so obviously difficult to comment but it sounded like Lewis overruled the team.

"At one point you think he is going to get to the end and from what we could see, those tyres were looking dangerous so it was inevitable he was going to have to pit.

"At the point that they pitted, that was to our maximum advantage because at that point you could see Charles as well, the tyres overheated and blistered quite badly and then the pace was lost.

"For us, the crucial moment was for when to pit Checo. We could have left him out to keep holding Lewis, [but] we decided to pit him to make sure we had track position because we didn't believe that those tyres would make it to the end of the race."

Perez reached the podium for the first time since the French Grand Prix and at one stage came out on top in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Hamilton after a breathtaking sequence of corners.

"He raced Lewis just as hard as Max does," claimed Horner. "He actually ended up in the pit lane, Lewis has run him out there.

"Then it is a drag race down the start-finish straight and he stuck with it and made it stick. A great move by him."

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