F1 News
Hamilton had no chance to defend against Verstappen: 'It was pointless'.
- GPblog.com
Immediately after the race, Nico Rosberg wondered aloud to Sky Sports why Lewis Hamilton didn't make any defensive moves against Max Verstappen in the closing stages of the race. The Dutchman was able to simply take the inside line on the straight and with it the victory.
In the press conference after the race Hamilton explained more about his thoughts times the overtake. "Firstly, there was quite a bit of rubber on the inside and I didn't want to make my tyres worse than they already were. He had DRS and if he hadn't overtaken me there, he would have on the following straight."
Hamilton powerless against Verstappen
So Hamilton knew he had to settle for second place and therefore didn't defend hard. "It would have made zero difference and I just ran out of front tyres. He would have overtaken me without a doubt. It was pointless to defend harder."
Hamilton refers to Bottas' action to make his position clearer.
The Finn did try to outbrake Verstappen, but then shot wide, allowing the Dutchman to overtake easily. "There was no point in making the tyres worse. A two-stop would probably have worked, but that wasn't one of the options for us. We will have to analyse and find out why that was," Hamilton concluded.