Hamilton: Decision was a joint call

Lewis Hamilton has revealed he thought that rivals Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel were pitting during the same period as he was, a mistake that cost him the Monaco GP.

Hamilton pitted from the lead under the safety car, which was out for the collision between Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean, with 13 laps of the race remaining but a mistake from the Mercedes strategists saw him finish third. Hamilton has said that a glimpse of a trackside screen meant he thought that the chasing Rosberg and Vettel were in the pits. He explained “You rely on the team. I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought 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, but 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.”

Lewis was clearly trying to take some of the blame for the mistake that cost him victory, but his Mercedes team claim they were to blame as they had misjudged the gap between Hamilton and teammate Rosberg. Team boss Toto Wolff said “It was our decision to call him in and our mistake, pure and simple: in these situations, a driver trusts his team.”

The misjudgement and mistakes by Hamilton lead to Rosberg taking victory, and reducing the deficit between them to just 10 points.

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