Hamilton ‘convinced’ that debris caused a flat tire

3 augustus 2020 – Lewis Hamilton is convinced that debris caused him to get a flat tire in the final lap of the British Grand Prix, almost losing his home race win.

Hamilton drove the entire race at Silverstone in the lead towards his seventh home victory, but he crossed the finish line on three functioning and one flat tires. When Luffield came out, the Mercedes driver suffered a flat tire which meant he had to slow down, but in the end the half minute lead on Max Verstappen was enough to cross the finish line first. At the end, there were five seconds left for Hamilton, who recorded his third consecutive win. After the race, he joked that he almost had a ‘heart failure’ in the last lap.

Asked by GPUpdate.net about how he paid attention to his tires in the race, Hamilton said he never felt threatened and thought there were plenty of life left for his Pirellis. “I really, really feel that I have ridden very well and that I have managed my tires as best as I can,” explained the six-time world champion. “Valtteri increased the pressure at the beginning of the stints, so in the places where I normally pay attention to the tires, I couldn’t do that now so I kept him out of my DRS. He was very fast today. I knew he was moment would decrease, so he wouldn’t pay attention to his tires in places where he should have, then you saw the hole grow and then I felt pretty comfortable with where I was, I was sure my tires were still good were enough. “

In addition to Hamilton, teammate Valtteri Bottas and McLaren driver Carlos Sainz also had a flat tire in the absolute final phase. The reigning world champion thinks that debris, which probably should have come from Kimi Raikkonen’s car, is to blame for the flat tire. The Alfa Romeo driver lost half of his front wing a few laps before the end, leaving some debris on the track. “It will be interesting to see what they come up with, because of course they can tell from the tread what caused the failure,” said Hamilton. “But I’m convinced it was probably debris.”

Hamilton was right behind Raikkonen when his front wing broke off and the Briton had already seen debris in Maggots and Becketts since the safety car phases early in the race. “I don’t think it’s cleared up. The tire worked just fine, so much so that I thought I could have pushed and made some quick laps towards the end, but luckily I didn’t,” Hamilton continued. “For the future, we’re going to see how we can do better. But honestly, I think my tire management was spot-on, as you could tell from my speed.”

With the collaboration of Luke Smith and Alex Kalinauckas

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