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Lewis Hamilton celebrated a second place he managed to keep in Mexico City but only after being given “breathing space” by the red flag for Kevin Magnussen’s heavy crash.
Prior to that incident on lap 33, Mercedes driver Hamilton had already manoeuvred himself into a strong third place, aided initially by Sergio Perez’s crash at the first corner before passing AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, followed by performing the undercut on Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari.
There was a question mark hanging over Hamilton, however, as he was faced with a 47-lap stint to the chequered flag on a set of hard tyres after pitting after 24 laps, sparking doubts as to whether the rubber would see out the race.
The picture changed when Magnussen crashed, with the Danish driver thankfully walking away from a heavy impact incident after a suspected failure of the rear-left suspension.
With the race suspended for 22 minutes, during which time teams were allowed to fit their cars with fresh tyres, Hamilton emerged on a set of mediums, whilst ahead of him Leclerc remained on the hards fitted two laps before the crash.
It was a gamble by Mercedes to a certain extent as even then there was uncertainty over the life of the yellow-striped Pirellis.
“The red flag probably played into our hands in terms of getting onto the fresher tyre at the end,” said Hamilton.
“Obviously, what happened at Turn 1 opened up the doors a little bit for us to gain a position there, and then it was about striking the right balance on the setup, and making the right decisions in terms of when to push, when to try to overtake and when not to.
“Tyre management was really the key, and I think stopping early to get past the Ferrari (Sainz)… Normally here it’s difficult to know whether you have an undercut or overcut but the undercut was really quite strong.
“That was their (Ferrari’s) chance. They should have stopped either before us or just after, and then after that was really the opportunity with the safety car.
“Obviously, we had stopped earlier so I didn’t know if I would be able to take that hard tyre all the way to the end. I was a bit worried because they had seven laps younger tyres, or something like that.
“So when the red flag came out, I was like ‘Yeah, a bit of breathing space’.”
After passing Leclerc on lap 40, Hamilton considered trying to reel in Verstappen, but soon realised that was a futile exercise given the three-time F1 champion was comfortably maintaining his pace.
Hamilton also had to be mindful of taking his mediums to the flag. It was not until the final lap that the 38-year-old was finally able to unleash his W14, taking the point for the fastest lap.
“I could have pushed a little bit harder,” said Hamilton. “I did at one time try to see. I thought ‘Okay, I think I’ve saved enough. Let me see if I can try and close this gap to Max. I think it was like 10 laps to go.
“I did a (one minute) 22.0 and Max did a 21.9. I was like, ‘Ah, I’ll leave it’. He was just cruising at 21.9.
“Also, I had to be cautious, just careful because if I’d really pushed them for the last 10 laps, they probably would have opened up, and who knows, maybe Charles would have caught me up. So, I just had to be cautious with that.”
With Perez crashing out, and Hamilton taking 19 points for finishing second and claiming the fastest-lap point, the gap in the drivers’ standings between the two is 20 points in favour of the Mexican as they chase the runner-up spot in the championship.
After Hamilton had endured his own first-corner crash in Qatar, and then being disqualified from the United States GP, Perez had opened up a 39-point cushion and appeared out of reach.
With three grands prix and the last sprint of the season to come, as to whether Hamilton can now catch Perez, he said: “It’s mostly dependent on Checo’s weekends really. They have the championship-winning car.
“He’s just been unfortunate, in some scenarios. Obviously, I’ve lost quite a lot of points in the last two races but he lost points (in Mexico), so it’s swings and roundabouts.
“Coming into the weekend, having lost points last week (in Austin), I didn’t think I was in shooting range particularly but after, yeah, we’ll just give it our best shot.
“Honestly, it’s not going to make a big difference to my life whether I come second or third. It’s more important to get the team second in the constructors’, so that’s what I’m focused on. It’s a bonus if we get second in the drivers’.”
