Rain showers at the top until the lights went out resulted in the entire field going into the race on intermediate tires, but the track dried out under the red flag that was thrown after the collisions at Turn 1.
As the field on intermediates left the pit lane, the track dried so quickly that 14 of the 15 cars immediately pitted to pick up a set of slick tires.
There was a bizarre situation in which Hamilton was left standing alone on the grid when the lights went out when he restarted. Hamilton then pitted for slicks at the end of the lap, dropping him to last place.
Mercedes F1 boss Wolff joked that it was “a bit lonely” for Hamilton on the grid, but said it was the right decision as he would have dropped a few places anyway with the cars driving through the pit lane.
“I believe [it was] 100% the right decision, and I stand by it, ”said Wolff. I thought that it couldn’t possibly dry out as it was in one round, and in the end you have to accept it with your chin that it was the wrong result.
“But the decision was right. We calculated that he would have finished sixth with the car train into the pit lane. Now you’re smarter, but that’s how it is.”
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Hamilton was able to recover to third place, but couldn’t maximize a difficult day for title rival Max Verstappen, who only finished 10th after his car damage at Turn 1.
Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel were second and third behind Hamilton under the red flag, finishing first and second after leading the cars into the pit lane to take slicks.
Wolff denied that the call from Mercedes could be viewed as a mistake and emphasized that he was “100%” by the decision and that Hamilton could still have won the race had he not lost so much time behind Fernando Alonso.
“We could have won today,” said Wolff. “We lost a lot of time behind Fernando and with that Esteban won the race and that is good.”
While the teams are not allowed to tell the drivers to pit on the warm-up lap for tires – which is to be played with Antonio Giovinazzi’s own decision before the first traffic lights go out – they can do so for a standing restart.
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