Lewis Hamilton says he was “really conflicted” over making a second pit stop while chasing Max Verstappen during the Spanish Grand Prix.
Mercedes’ daring strategy saw it drop Hamilton over 20 seconds behind on Verstappen, with the seven-time world champion hunting the Dutchman down in the final stage of the race.
Verstappen who stayed out on aging tyres, failed to keep Hamilton behind, allowing the Mercedes driver to secure his 98th career victory in Formula 1.
However, Hamilton admits that he was having doubts over the strategy, which was similar to a successful call made at the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix.
“It had been the plan all weekend for us to make sure we had two Mediums to be able to do a two-stop,” Hamilton said.
“A one-stop potentially looked better. I know from experience here, a one-stop is very, very hard to pull off.
“As soon as we had the pace we had, I knew as soon as I could get past him if I could.
“I think I had a shot of getting past him before I pitted right at the end and I was really conflicted. Like do I come in or do I ignore the call and stay out?
“I obviously did what the team asked and naturally because there’s a great trust between us. Just a remarkable job by everyone here in this team through and through.”
Hamilton hailed the “good gamble” from Mercedes, who had to actively work to regain the lead after Verstappen moved into first place on lap one.
“[It was] such a close start,” Hamilton said. “There was a lot of rubber down on the right-hand side and the Red Bull got a great start, after that, [I was] just hunting.
“I was so close for so long and I didn’t think in doing that I was going to make the tyres last but I just managed to keep them in somehow.
“It was a long way to come back from, 20 odd seconds back but it was a good gamble, a really great strategy by the team.”
