Lewis Hamilton explains slick gamble behind Turkish GP despair

Hamilton in Turkey — Photo: © LAT Images

Turkish Grand Prix

Hamilton explains slick gamble behind Turkish GP despair

Hamilton stopped with just eight laps remaining

Sam Hall

Monday 11 October 2021 05:00

Lewis Hamilton has revealed a desire to "miss a stop" and pit only for slick tyres was behind his "frustrating" Turkish Grand Prix climax.

After setting the fastest time in qualifying, Hamilton started 11th after being stung by a 10-place penalty for introducing a fourth engine of the season.

With F1 title rival Max Verstappen starting and eventually finishing second behind race-winner Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton gambled on skipping a pit stop in the hope he would not need a second set of intermediate tyres but could go instead to slicks.

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“The fact is the track was drying and we didn’t know if it was going to dry or not but it was slowly getting drier," explained Hamilton.

“For me, I was in third at one stage and hopeful that I would miss a stop so everyone else did that inter switch and I was hopeful that if there was another one to slicks, that would gain me positions."

After eventually stopping at the end of lap 50, Hamilton was unable to make the most of his fresh intermediates and suffered from graining.

The seven-time F1 champion explained the team had "two scenarios", one was completing the race without stopping, a strategy Pirelli believes was unlikely to have worked, or stopping significantly earlier.

With hindsight, Hamilton has now suggested he should have pitted much sooner, albeit it was a call he openly questioned at the time.

“Maybe we could have stopped earlier because naturally if we had stopped earlier, when I caught Perez maybe we could have stopped," said Hamilton.

"But at that point, you just had no idea if it would have been dry or not. So I don’t feel a particular way about it.

“It was frustrating at the time because obviously, I could see second and then all of a sudden I’m back in fifth.”