Jul.7 (GMM) Lewis Hamilton simply lucked into the perfect strategy call that raced him to victory at Silverstone.
That is the view of his Mercedes teammate and title rival Nico Rosberg, even though one publication crowned Hamilton a “tactical-God” after the British grand prix.
Hamilton appeared to agree with that assessment on Monday, telling British journalists that he had “100 per cent confidence in my mind in terms of making the decision”.
But actually, the world champion was being rapidly hunted down at the time by his German teammate Rosberg, prompting the spur-of-the-moment decision to duck into the pits.
“At that moment I thought ‘Now I’m going to win’,” Rosberg said in his latest column for Bild newspaper.
“As Lewis drove into the pits to get rain tyres, I was totally surprised. I thought ‘Now I’ve got him!’ Actually it was too early (to pit),” he added.
“But then the downpour came at exactly that moment! Madness, because if the rain had come just half a lap later, I would have had him.
“Annoying,” Rosberg concluded.