Motorsports
One pit, two pit tango in Italy
Forced to improvise, Hamilton’s unplanned second pit stop put the Brit on the fresh rubber he needed to make a late charge and win Fastest Lap.
One-pit strategies are the norm at Monza. With an average lap speed of over 250 km/h, it is the fastest circuit in Formula 1. But with few fast corners the track is not particularly hard on the tires and therefore less difficult to manage from a strategic point of view. This year’s reduced pit lane speed limit of 80 km/h encouraged even more teams to stop only once.
Hamilton ended Saturday’s qualifying in disappointing P12, which meant that he had his work cut out for him on Sunday. That would prove, however, not to be his only setback: a slow puncture early in the race caused Team Mercedes to switch to a two-pit strategy.
Fresh tires, Fastest Lap
Though not an ideal situation, the improvised strategy made Hamilton one of the few drivers on fresh medium tires at the end of the race in a car that had been demonstrating good speed all day in the middle of the pack. The Brit wasted no time, racing a fastest lap out of the pit lane and proceeding to knock off five drivers in ten laps, notching up the days Fastest Lap as he passed fellow countrymen, McLaren driver Jenson Button.
With by far the fastest pace on the track in the race’s closing moments, Hamilton closed on the battle for seventh between Ricciardo and Grosjean in the final lap, attempting a passing maneuver at the Roggia chicane. His last chance unfortunately ran wide and he was forced to surrender the position and cross the finish as the third man in the trio.
It was a fine display that left the silver arrow driver with a little bragging rights on an otherwise disappointing day for Team Mercedes. Taking only two points away from the Italian Grand Prix, Hamilton moved into third place on the driver standings but finds himself a nearly insurmountable 81 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel of team Red Bull Racing.
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