Mercedes chief explains crucial tactics that allowed Hamilton to beat Vettel

Mercedes technical director James Allison has explained the crucial tactic, which allowed Lewis Hamilton to beat Sebastian Vettel in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton has tipped Sebastian Vettel to bounce back from the latest in his expanding catalogue of mistakes. Hamilton stormed to victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix after Ferrari flopped. “Bahrain is a very different sort of track,” Allison explained. “Here the asphalt is super rough, super hard on the tyres and as a result, instead of just slowing down by over one second over the tyre life they slow down by about two and a half seconds. Which means that the car who comes in first for fresh rubber will go insanely faster for a lap or two compared to the one that stayed out. “That means you can jump forward by a huge amount. We saw this most strongly with Lewis in his second stop relative to Sebastian. “Before the stop, Lewis was about four seconds behind. One lap of fresh rubber after the stop and he was able to close up to the back of Sebastian’s car. That gave us a chance to attack and overtake him.”

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