Lewis Hamilton really had to work for this one.
A glance at the results of the Monaco Grand Prix – Mercedes’ sixth straight win this year, Hamilton’s fourth victory in six races, leading lights to flag – makes it look easy. But it was anything but.
Mercedes – pretty much flawless all season so far – made their first big mistake of the year. They put Hamilton on the wrong tyres at his pit stop, and that left him facing a rear-guard battle with rapidly deteriorating grip, and the most aggressive driver in Formula 1 right behind him.
Overtaking is close to impossible in Monaco, but that should take nothing away from the quality of Hamilton’s drive.
“He saved us,” Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said afterwards. “His driving saved us.”
Hamilton said afterwards: “I think it was the hardest race I’ve had. I’ve had a lot of races but globally, in the car and with the tyres, the strategy, with Max (Verstappen) behind, it was the biggest challenge I think I’ve had and I’m really grateful I was able to pull it off.”
It was a drive reminiscent of Ayrton Senna holding off Nigel Mansell’s Williams in the closing laps of Monaco in 1992, after the Briton had closed at five seconds a lap after a late tyre change. Or Daniel Ricciardo holding off Sebastian Vettel to win for Red Bull last year despite a power loss of
more than 160bhp.
The incident that changed the race – and turned Hamilton’s afternoon from what would have been a relatively easy cruise to the flag into a nerve-fraying fight that tested him to the limit – was the safety car being deployed so officials could clean up the debris strewn around the circuit as a
flailing tyre on Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari smashed his car’s floor to pieces.
The race was only 11 laps old. There were still 67 laps to go. All the leaders pitted, but while Red Bull and Ferrari put Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel on to the ‘hard’ compound tyre, Mercedes chose the ‘medium’ for Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
“It was obviously the wrong call,” Wolff admitted. Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto said he was “surprised”, given how much further there was to go. Mercedes were about to find out why.
