Dramatic weekend for Mercedes strategy: "Red Bull would've taken satisfaction"

Lewis Hamilton finished seventh at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, and despite two dropouts from people in front of him, failed to manage to gain a place from his starting position. Jolyon Palmer points to Mercedes.

Bad day for Mercedes

After a seventh place finish in qualifying, Hamilton faced a tough task in Monaco. The Briton had to ensure that the damage to Verstappen was limited, and with Charles Leclerc dropping out of the race, he was able to do so quickly. The Brit won a place, and the loss of Valtteri Bottas would also give him another place. At least P5, you would think, but Hamilton finished seventh.

''It was a really poor race for Mercedes. Hamilton does the earliest pit stop. He put on the hard tyres which are difficult to warm up, and Mercedes already have issues with that anyway. Basically, Gasly's in-lap was better than Hamilton's out-lap on the hard tyre. The key in Monaco strategy is to have clear air. If you're Hamilton, you have much more pace than Gasly, so you've got to get clear air," Palmer says in his analysis for Formula1.com.

Hamilton falls back again

''One driver who showed Mercedes how it should have been done in Monaco was Sergio Perez. He went six laps longer than Hamilton. He was behind Vettel, Hamilton and Gasly and was actually irrelevant to Hamilton at this stage. Perez waited just as Hamilton did. He hardly put any pressure on the car ahead, saving the tyres," he added. 

Whereas Hamilton came in early, struggled to warm up the hard tyre and then had to leave Gasly and Vettel ahead, Perez got ahead of all three of those drivers. That strategy paid off for Perez. "He was even able to put pressure on Norris for P3. Red Bull would've taken a bit of satisfaction with Hamilton going backwards," concludes the former F1 driver.