On Sunday in Zandvoort, in Max Verstappen’s lair, it closed for the Mercedes with a second and fourth place. An overall good result for the silver arrows which testifies to the steps forward made by the team, which is now concretely competing to reach second place in the constructors’ standings. Today, however, for George Russell and above all for Lewis Hamilton the possibility of getting their hands on what would have been the first, much desired, seasonal success for the Brackley team opened up for several laps. Before the race was conditioned by VSC and Safety Car, in fact, the one stop strategy thought by the black-silver wall was giving its fruits, giving Hamilton the chance to fight for the victory with Verstappen.
The chaos caused by Yuki Tsunoda and the neutralization of the race imposed by the Virtual Safety Car seemed to have frozen the chances of success of the two W13s, which were suddenly rekindled by the entry of the ‘real’ Safety Car following the retirement of Valtteri Bottas. At this point though Mercedes made a rare strategic mistake, becoming enticed by the first position occupied by Hamilton after the stop made by Verstappen to mount the soft tires. Brackley’s team copied the Dutchman’s move with only Russell, while keeping the # 44 in the lead with less fast tires than the rival. The result was a replica of what happened in Abu Dhabi in 2021.
In the excitement of the moment Hamilton let himself go over the radio in angry words towards his garage. After the race, however, the Englishman himself has definitely lowered the tone. Toto WolffMercedes team principal, however, had no problem admitting the mistake made by his team. Interviewed by Austrian TV ORF the Viennese manager explained that it was decided to risk everything for everything to try to achieve the much desired victory. “We took a risk because Lewis was in front. The medium tire was five laps old and we weren’t expecting the way he gave way against the soft – Mercedes boss admitted – it was definitely a mistake, but it was absolutely worth the risk“.
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