Sebastian Vettel admits his surprise at Lewis Hamilton’s pit stop during the Canadian GP – Formula 1
Sebastian Vettel admitted the he was surprised to see Lewis Hamilton pit during the race at the time he did during the Canadian Grand Prix.
Vettel started the race placed ahead of everyone and took the lead instantly but as he pitted Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton closed the gap and were in the lead.
Hamilton was leading the race as he decided to pit when only 19 laps were left in the race. Vettel said that at that point the tyres felt they were fine and the grip was there and the pace as well. Both Alonso and Vettel had planned for a one stop strategy.
Hamilton got out of the pits and found himself behind Alonso and Vettel but he as the race went on Hamilton overtook both the drivers with ease in the final stages of the race.
Vettel decided to pit later in the race while Alonso kept on going with the one stop strategy to go for the win. The degraded tyres on the Ferrari lost him a podium position as the car lacked the grip and the pace required to defend his position.
This allowed Lotus driver Romain Grosjean and Sauber driver Sergio Perez to finish the race at second and third place respectively ahead of Alonso.
“It all made sense but obviously when you're in the race you don't know what will be the final outcome,” Vettel said. “At the time Lewis decided to box he was in the lead and I think Fernando and myself were a little bit surprised because the tyres seemed
to hold up fairly well, but then all of a sudden they started to go off in the end. Obviously we were hoping to get the place back against Lewis but it was pretty obvious then that there was no way to hold him off so in the end we decided to box again.”
It will be interesting to see how teams strategise for Valencia as the Pirelli compounds are proved to have a major impact in the eventual result of the races. Tyre degradation will be the focus of all the teams for the next race.
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