Lewis Hamilton defeated Max Verstappen with a comfortable margin in Brazil but reveals the unusual aspect he never expected would work.
Lewis Hamilton entered into the Grand Prix weekend in Brazil with several setbacks. However, he hustled to the top and made a comeback into the title race which was till Friday tilting towards Max Verstappen.
In his recent revelations, Hamilton claims that he was surprised by how well the hard tyres survived in Brazil. However, he also credited the excellent strategy by his team.
“I think, honestly we’ve been working so hard, every weekend, obviously. To try and get the car into a place where we can compete but just with no answer for the pace that they were able to produce.”
“And then [they were] obviously, a long way ahead of us in the last race so we were coming to a track where last time they were very strong here, I think in 2019.”
“So I anticipated that would be hot on Sunday. We knew that that potentially would be an Achilles heel for us but for whatever reason. The cars were working fantastically well this weekend.”
“I chose to go a direction this weekend which we both ended up on and which worked really well. I think, for the both of us, we just really optimised the car in these conditions this weekend.”
“Really surprised to be able to follow so closely and then once I was past Max. I still had tyre left and I could keep going so it was strange because that’s not normal but we’ll take it, very very happy with it.”
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Lewis Hamilton glad to not touch wheels
Tensions soared when Verstappen pushed him out on turn 4 during lap 48. The Dutchman escaped a penalty, though Hamilton reveals he expected nothing less from Verstappen while turning.
“I think I was ahead initially, and I think he held his ground and we both ran out of the road,” said Hamilton. “Well, I think he was running out of road.
“So I obviously had to avoid running out of road – but I mean, I didn’t think too much of it and obviously. I’ll have to watch the replay, but it’s hard battling and wouldn’t expect anything less really. We didn’t touch wheels, which is good.”
