© Wolfgang Wilhelm for Daimler AG
Lewis Hamilton was running in third at the Turkish Grand Prix on his old intermediate tyre, before he was called into the pits with only eight laps remaining.
The Briton ultimately finished in P5, and he was at first angry that the team called him in instead of leaving him out to try and finish the race on his original intermediate tyre.
However, after the race he seemed to understand that the tyre would probably not remain in adequate condition until the end of the race and his performance would have probably dropped off significantly.
“The tyres are bald so you don’t know how far they’re going to go,” the Briton told Sky Sports F1
“And so there is definitely the worry of the life of the tyre, but also I wasn’t really that fussed at the end there.
“I was struggling, had low grip, I’m not really sure why. But then all of a sudden I would have not bad pace.
“So I was losing performance to the guys behind, but I think probably in hindsight I should have either stayed out or come in much earlier.
“Because when you come in with eight laps to go, you don’t have time to go through the graining phase of that medium tyre on a drying track.
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“So then I went through this whole sliding phase where I nearly lost more positions so a bit frustrating but it is what it is.
“It felt good to be in third and I thought if I could just hold on to this, it’s a great result from 11th. Fifth is worse, but it could be worse.”
When asked if he thinks his original intermediate tyre would have lasted until the end of the race, Lewis said: “Ocon’s did”.
After his pit stop, Hamilton seemed to be surprised that he had lost two places.
“What position am I in man?” Lewis asked his race engineer Peter Bonnington. When he was told he was running in P5, Lewis said: “We shouldn’t have come in man. I told you!”
Later Lewis explained his frustration.
“I didn’t know at that time, but I could have probably assumed that I would lose [places].
“The guys were only 15 seconds behind and it’s a 24-second pit stop, so I knew I would lose perhaps one,” concluded the seven-time champion.
