Crucial error by Mercedes hand Rosberg victory

Mercedes have been the dominant team really all weekend, with Lewis Hamilton looking the driver that was most likely going to win the race.

The start went well for Lewis Hamilton maintaining the advantage going into the first corner, with Rosberg being attacked by Sebastian Vettel. Lewis maintained that advantage all the way through the race, just keeping the gap right to Rosberg getting up to the high teens before the safety car.

At the time of Verstappen’s accident the virtual safety car was called, the first time in a race situation for F1, although that decision was quickly changed to a full safety car.

A virtual safety car meant that the cars had to lap at a predetermined speed, but a real safety car is determined by the lapping car, which meant that the other cars could close in slightly on Hamilton. With the team thinking he had enough of a gap to pit, he came in for another set of the super soft tyres. He came out well behind his team mate Nico, and just behind Sebastian Vettel, where there was a debate over who just was in front.

It was from then on in that Hamilton couldn’t take advantage of the newer and faster tyres on his car, with Rosberg running away up the road.

Rosberg though was delighted at the win, talking to Martin Brundle on the podium, “Yeah, for sure, very, very happy of course. But I know also that it was just a lot of luck today.

“Lewis drove brilliantly and he would have also deserved the win for sure. But that’s the way it is in racing and definitely I’m extremely happy and going to make the most of it.”

Lewis was obviously devastated at the result, he said in the press conference, “I can’t really express the way I feel at the moment. So I won’t even attempt to.

“You rely on the team. I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn’t see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting.

“The team said to stay out, I said “these tyres are going to drop in temperature,” and what I was assuming was that these guys would be on Options and I was on the harder tyre. So, they said to pit.

“Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.”

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