09/05/2022
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton has defended his decision not to make a late pit stop, the seven-time champion admitting that it felt like a risk too many.
When teammate George Russell finally made his sole pit stop on Lap 40, under the safety car, now on fresh mediums he was soon able to reel in and subsequently pass his Mercedes teammate, both subsequently benefitting from a mistake by Valtteri Bottas.
With the safety car still on track, Hamilton was asked if he wanted to make a second stop, having switched from mediums to hards on Lap 22.
"You tell me, man!" he replied. "I don't want to lose a place to George."
Speaking after the race, the Briton explained his call.
"When you're out there you don't have all the information," he said. "You don't know where everyone is, where you'll come out, you don't have the picture they have on the screen.
"When you're given the responsibility to make the decision it feels like your gambling and I don't like that," he admitted. "I was like, 'you guys make the decision'.
"Either way, we've just been unfortunate with the timing of the safety car today."
Russell subsequently passed his teammate but went wide in the process and had to give the position back. However, with both Mercedes passing Bottas on Lap 48, a lap later Russell passed his teammate again to claim fifth.
"Strategy has not been kind to me," said Hamilton in a radio message to his team.
Speaking after the race, while praising his teammate's performance, Hamilton said that like his teammate he too should have started the race on hards as opposed to mediums.
"George obviously did a great job in that stint," said the seven-time champion. "He was on the better tyre to start with, the hard tyre was the better tyre, so in hindsight maybe we could have started on the hard tyre.
"He did a great job to recover from that position and get the points," he added, "fifth and sixth is good points today for the team."
Asked if he needed a change in luck, he replied: "Yeah, I'm waiting for it. Until then I'll keep working as hard as I can, working with the team. We got good points as a team today."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Miami, here.