Hamilton hailed for "degree of class" that led to Mercedes "mass hysteria"

Mercedes technical director James Allison has hailed Lewis Hamilton's final laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix as "inch-perfect" and delivered with "a degree of class" that resulted in unbridled scenes in the team's garage.

Mercedes' triumph in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix was its 103rd of the turbo-hybrid era, but Allison claims few were as memorable, due to the circumstances as seven-time champion Hamilton held Red Bull's Max Verstappen at bay.

From Allison's personal perspective, he has described it as "one of the most thrilling, nail-biting, sort of, chest-bursting experiences that I have ever had at a race track".

With Verstappen closing in on fresher tyres, for a moment it appeared as if the Dutch driver had sealed victory with his pass on Hamilton around the outside of turn four on lap 53 of 56.

It quickly became apparent, however, Verstappen had exceeded track limits in executing his manoeuvre and was ordered to give the place back.

Despite hounding Hamilton to the chequered flag, Verstappen was unable to make a second attempt at a pass as his tyres lacked their earlier pace, losing by just 0.746secs.

Describing the feelings in the Mercedes garage as they watched Hamilton in action, Allison said: "We have all sorts of tools at the track that make predictions for us, that shows us how the tyres are wearing, what the likelihood is of holding a place, not holding a place and we have the timing screens like everyone else and we have the television like everyone else.

"But all those tools were of no help. They were making a prediction that was changing with about every two or three seconds - it was saying Lewis was going to win, then it would change its mind and say that Max was going to win.

"But honestly you didn’t need the software to know how tight it was and all of us were holding our breath, crossing our fingers, crossing our toes and just hoping with everything we had that Lewis would be able to hang on to the end."

Recalling the masterclass delivered by Hamilton over the final laps, Allison added: "That he did so in such style, that he did so with such inch-perfect positioning of his car at turn four when Max had that one go at him, that he did so with that degree of class just added to the thrill of it all.

"When he finally crossed the line there was an outbreak of mass hysteria in our garage with the utter, utter delight of it.

"Last year, we managed to win lots of races with a very strong set of performances but there will be very few races as memorable as the one that we enjoyed yesterday in Bahrain.”

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