Hamilton would have to give up if the race wasn't stopped



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Hamilton would have to give up if the race wasn't stopped

Mercedes track operations chief Andrew Shovlin says Lewis Hamilton would have to give up if the race for the UK Grand Prix had not been stopped, but as teams are allowed to replace damaged parts during the break Hamilton started and won his home race for the eighth time.

Verstappen had to give up due to a badly damaged car after a controversial collision in a Copse corner, and Hamilton lost his position to Leclerc and continued driving although he soon reported that his car was damaged. The team told Hamilton that they were ready and could come to the box, but as the race was stopped Hamilton was given a new front wing and other damaged parts.

“We had damage to the point of contact on the front left wheel so we would have to give up if the race wasn't stopped,” Shovlin said after the race. “But the rest of the damage was actually incredibly small.

The tire temperature sensor fell off and stayed hanging, but it's unbelievable that the least important part of the front wing cracked. "

Shovlin on the result

Shovlin commented on the result, which brought Mercedes quite close to Red Bull in both championships, and says that they have worked extremely hard in recent weeks to reduce the gap.

“The first half of the race was pretty tough for both drivers on medium tires, we were limited in traffic by overheating the tires and it was impossible to get close enough to attack,” Shovlin said. "We planned to stay on the track with Lewis for a long time, but when Lando had a slow stop we called Valtteri earlier to win that position." "Lewis and I struggled in the first lap with the understeer and eventually got into boxing [in lap 27] due to a drop in front tire performance." "On the hard tires, we were able to start pushing the car to its potential and it was great to see that Valtteri managed to escape [Norris] and that Lewis was closing the gap behind Charles." "We expected him to caught up Lewis two laps before the end, but Lewis' speed didn't drop and in the end, he won with ease even though he served a ten-second penalty." "We came here to win and close the championship gap and we should be very happy with our work this weekend." "We are almost halfway through the championship and we know that Red Bull will fight back strongly so we will start working immediately for the next race in Budapest."