This is how Lewis Hamilton grabbed P2 in Mexico: 'Red flag gave breathing room'

Lewis Hamilton managed to keep behind the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in Mexico despite being on the medium tyre when the Ferrari drivers were on the hard tyre. He spoke to Jenson Button about a "sweet finesse", but what does the Mercedes driver mean by that?

In the press conference after the Grand Prix, Hamilton explained. "It's really just about how much you're sliding the tyre, and it's about the balance that you have. If you have too much wing and too much front end in the car, then the car is a bit like a seesaw." He continued: "You want to start a long stint or a stint with the car understeering because as the rears go off, the seesaw tips and then it goes to oversteer, and when it goes to oversteer, that's when you're lost most often."

The seven-time world champion points out that it is no secret to other drivers. "I think today was just a really great balance of lifting coast and tyre saving, and it's a technique that all the drivers know about."

Pleased with the red flag

The Brit also had a bit of luck with the red flag. "What happened at turn one opened up the doors a little bit for us to gain a position there. Tyre management was really the key." But it was not an easy race for the team's strategists. "Normally here it's difficult to know whether you have an undercut or overcut but the undercut was really quite strong. I was a bit worried because they had seven laps younger tyres or something like that. When the red flag came out, it was like a bit of breathing space."

Fastest lap

To top it off, Lewis Hamilton managed to take another point away from Max Verstappen on the last lap of the race by setting the fastest lap. Andrew Shovlin explains on the YouTube channel of Mercedes explains how that came about: "Towards the end of the race, Lewis asked for the fastest lap. We thought it was worth a try. Because he still had good tyres, he was able to put that lap down."