Despite starting from 6th on the grid, Hamilton showed what the combination of extraordinary skill, deep experience and determination can accomplish. Having made up 3 places by the third corner, Hamilton drove a perfect race in truly terrible conditions; a newly surfaced, smooth track, rain and cold weather. Getting tires and brakes to optimal operating temperatures was a challenge. Bottas span out six times; he was one of many.
What made the race particularly fascinating was the question of when (or if ) to change tires. Hamilton had been driving for more than half the race on his second set of intermediate wet weather tires ("inters"). By lap 60 they were getting very worn with most of the tread gone; they were almost slicks. As the track dried out the advantage of changing to dry weather super-soft ties, said to be about 5 seconds a lap, became less and less attractive as the opportunity to make up the pit stop delta, probably about 25 seconds, diminished; but interestingly the 5-seconds a lap advantage of super-softs vs. inters was for new inters, not worn ones, so that gap was probably much smaller. At the close of the race Hamilton's tires were up to temperature and he was able to get the extra grip in the dry that came from having almost slick tires; and that made the difference. So when the team called him to pit, just in case there was rain, he decided instead to stay out and as a result finished a one-stop race an astounding 30 seconds ahead of second place Sergio Perez. That's quite a way to clinch a 7th world title.
No comments:
Post a Comment