Lewis Hamilton admits that he tried to chase down Max Verstappen at one stage during the Mexico City Grand Prix but relented once he realised the Red Bull was “cruising”.
Starting sixth, Hamilton immediately gained a position after Sergio Perez clashed with Charles Leclerc at the first turn before displacing Daniel Ricciardo on Lap 11.
Having latched onto the back of Carlos Sainz, Hamilton successfully undercut the Ferrari prior to the race being stopped on Lap 33 due to Kevin Magnussen’s Turn 9 crash.
The Briton took advantage of running the Medium tyre for the remainder to overhaul Charles Leclerc shortly after the restart to cement his finishing position of second.
Reflecting on his charge to the podium, Hamilton said: “Yeah, great day. I was not expecting to be up here with these guys.
“Difficult weekend, it started out, but yeah, I just kept my nose clean at the beginning of the race and then just really trying to manage the tyres and maximise and progress forwards.
“And when I noticed that I had the pace on Carlos, I knew that with the undercut, it really worked quite well. So, the team did a great job I think with strategy.
“And then of course the red flag probably played into our hands in terms of getting onto the fresher tyre at the end. But I just I didn’t know if whether or not the Medium would make it that long.
“I was trying to see if I could close the gap to Max but he was long gone and I could only just about equal his times. But great result for the team, really proud of everyone.”
Despite running a softer compound of tyre and being situated on the clean side of the grid, Hamilton was unable to get by Leclerc on the run down to Turn 1 on the restart.
After remaining in close proximity to the Ferrari for several laps, Hamilton utilised the slipstream and DRS to slip up the inside of Leclerc into the first corner on Lap 40.
Hamilton asserts that he virtually “pressed every button on the steering wheel” in order to mitigate the substantial time loss Mercedes was spurning on the straights.
“Yeah, honestly, this weekend, we’ve been very, very slow on the straight,” he explained. “In general, we’ve were quite draggy on the straights more often than not but this weekend, you know, like yesterday, we were losing like two-and-a-half tenths just into Turn 1 before we even start braking.
“So, these guys were very slippery on the straights so, trying to follow closely through Turns 16 and 17 was, was really the only way that I could get close enough and have an opportunity to make the DRS impactful.
“And finally, I pressed every button on the steering wheel, maximum power. And I didn’t know how far across he was going to go. But split second decision, I decided to go to the right. There’s just enough space there but Charles was really fair. But yeah, great racing.”
Hamilton revealed that using “sweet finesse” was the key to him preserving his Medium tyres to the end to maintaining the advantage he had built up over Leclerc.
The seven-time World Champion disclosed that he did push on in an attempt to reduce the deficit to Verstappen, but he swiftly figured the Dutchman was coasting.
Asked if his successful attempt at the fastest lap on the final tour suggested he could have extracted more from the last stint, Hamilton said: “Yeah, for sure. I could have pushed a little bit harder but I did at one time try to see, okay, I think I’ve saved enough, let me see if I can try and close this gap to Max.
“I think it was like 10 laps to go, and I did a 22.0 and Max did a 21.9. I was like, ah, I’ll leave it. He was just cruising at 21.9. So yeah, so I thought I’d leave it there.
“And also, I had to be cautious, just careful because obviously my tyres… if I really pushed them for the last 10 laps, they probably would have opened up, and who knows, maybe Charles would have caught me up. So, I just had to be cautious with that.”
