godlameroso wrote: ↑03 Aug 2020, 22:13
So why didn't Bottas try to go faster if he had an extra set of tires? Are you saying that Hamilton was holding up Bottas despite Bottas never being in DRS range at all? I'm not sure I buy what you're selling. The fact is neither Mercedes could build up a gap to give them a free pit stop, no matter what they tried, because they weren't as far ahead of RB as they were in the last two races. Mercedes never intended to two stop, it wasn't even an option, and either Bottas no longer has any ambition to be champion, or he tried to beat Hamilton couldn't either way RB was closer here than they were in the last two races.
Yes, that was exactly what Lewis was doing. He was going just fast enough to keep Bottas out of DRS range.
If they had to stop again for fresh tires for any reason Lewis was going to be at a disadvantage. Bottas had a fresh set of Medium available, and lewis only had used tires available. Thus Lewis needed to make sure he and Bottas didn't build a big enough gap that Bottas could take a free pit stop.
The medium compound runners were expected to stop between lap 21 and 24 for hards. however Ham, Bot, Ver, Lec, and Str all stopped on lap 13 during the second safety car period. That made Lewis's job somewhat easier, as everyone had to baby their tires. However, Lewis would still be vulnerable to a SC or Virtual SC. Max had a fresh set of mediums he would have surely stopped for, and Merc would have been forced to respond to that, giving Bottas a tire advantage.
By going just fast enough to keep Bottas out of DRS range he ensured that Bottas would wear his tires more, and that the gap to max would not grow very large.
Don't forget that in shanghai 2015 Nico accused Lewis of doing exactly this.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/mot ... 71626.html
“It’s interesting to hear from Lewis that he was just thinking about himself and about his pace in front, because that was compromising my race,” Rosberg said. “He was driving slower than necessary at the beginning of each stint, which meant that Sebastian closed up on me and that opened up the chance for him to try and pass me with an early pit stop.
“It was unnecessary and cost me a lot of race time as a result and meant that my tyres died at the end, so I’m unhappy about that.”