Hamilton explains decision to defy Mercedes team orders

Lewis Hamilton has revealed why he thought it would be best to ignore the Mercedes team orders to pit in the closing laps of the British Grand Prix, which he went on to win ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

With seven laps remaining, Hamilton had the opportunity for a ‘free’ pit stop as the difference in time between himself and Bottas allowed for the stop whilst remaining ahead of the Finn afterwards.

The Brit went against the call to come in, instead opting to finish the race on his hard tyres. In his opinion, the positives outweighed the negatives to stay out there.

“Why take the risk?” he responded when asked why he ignored the team.

“I guess I had a pit stop window, but there's the entry into the pitlane, the stop, the extra pressure on the engineers.

“Not that I doubt them at all. I'd say the tyres felt good. The hard tyre is really great and I had to keep going.

“I did have some blistering, so I was conflicted. I was like 'should I stop?' There's seven laps left. It's very hard to catch a 21-second gap.

“So I decided, on the day, that was the best thing for me.”

One of the reasons Hamilton decided to remain on the track in P1 is that he was impressed by how the tyres dealt with his long run during the free practice session on Friday.

“It just worked out today that I was able to save the tyres,” he continued.

“My long run on Friday was one of the best long runs I've done. Everyone else was riding out tyres except for me.”

The Mercedes driver is now the most successful driver in the history of the British GP, having won on six occasions - one more than the five of Alain Prost and Jim Clark.

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