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Should Mercedes have let Hamilton go in front? "In hindsight it's the best choice"

09:20, 06 Jul 2020

byMatt

Lewis Hamilton crossed the line in second place but missed out on the podium due to his five-second time penalty. Lando Norris drove the lap of his life, but could Mercedes have come up with another solution? Toto Wolff thinks so.

Change at Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas indicated after the race that it was an exciting finish. For many laps, Mercedes drivers had saved the gearbox but still had to work hard to get Lewis to finish as high as possible. Bottas indicated that a change was never discussed, but that was different on the pit wall.

"Of course you could say we should have let Lewis drive ahead of Bottas. If we had, maybe Lewis would have gone to the podium. With all that information afterwards a third place would have been there, but it was also very chaotic and that makes a switch very complex," says Toto Wolff after the race.

To the pits or not

In the Mercedes review, Andrew Shovlin also gives a glimpse into the tactical choices made by Mercedes. For example, the team didn't come in during the Safety Car, which gave the competition a big advantage on softer tyres. In hindsight, Mercedes should perhaps have done this.

"The timing of the safety car wasn't great for us, we'd have been able to get both cars in but didn't want to end up having to overtake given the concerns with vibration so it was a balance of risk but we'll review that before next Sunday. We could also have done a better job at the end to keep Lewis on the podium but when Valtteri slowed for the yellow on lap 69 it left Lewis a bit sandwiched," Shovlin concludes.