No extra pit stop for Hamilton: "His tyres looked better"
- GPblog.com
For Mercedes, it seemed to be a perfect race weekend again. In the last few laps of the Grand Prix, a nightmare occurred for the team. According to Toto Wolff, the DAS system had nothing to do with it.
In the penultimate lap but one of the Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas suddenly had a flat tyre as he lost his second place. Not long later, Lewis Hamilton faced exactly the same problem, but the Brit was lucky he didn't have to drive a whole lap on three wheels.
The question is why both Mercedes cars had the same problem at almost the same time. According to Toto Wolff, it's certainly not their exclusive system. "I don't think the DAS system had any influence. For example, Carlos Sainz had the same problem with what I think was the same tyre, front left. That's the one that's having a hard time at Silverstone, and we've seen more drivers blistering on their hard tyres. The punctures have nothing to do with DAS," the team boss told GPUpdate.net and others.
No extra pit stop for Hamilton
When Bottas' tyre broke down, Hamilton had the opportunity to change his tyres as well, but in the end, the team didn't opt for it. "We had that discussion at the pit wall. There was enough margin compared to Verstappen to bring Lewis in again, but there was only one lap to go and Lewis' tyres looked better than those of Valtteri. That's why we decided to let him continue," the Austrian concluded.