Why didn’t Mercedes pit Hamilton sooner for intermediates?

Mercedes have revealed their reasoning behind not taking a gamble on switching Lewis Hamilton to a set of intermediates early during the Monaco GP.

Hamilton appeared to be a lead contender for an early switch to the intermediate tyre during the early stages of the Monaco Grand Prix, as the conditions improved from requiring the full wet tyre at the race start.

The Mercedes driver, a master in mixed conditions, was circulating down in eighth place, cooped up behind Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, when Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly both chose to pit for the intermediates on Lap 6 and Lap 2 respectively.

Torquing Point: Does Monaco Deserve A Place On The Calendar - Monaco GP Conclusions

Red Bull are the big winners in Monaco

Torquing Point: A bump in the road for Mercedes' recovery - Monaco GP Conclusion

Torquing Point: Ferrari Incompetence extends Leclerc's Monaco curse - Monaco GP Conclusion

Beginning of the end for Ricciardo at McLaren?

Torquing Point: Sergio Perez had the measure of Max in Monaco - Monaco GP Conclusions

Torquing Point: Pierre Gasly 8/10 - Monaco GP Driver Ratings

But it took until Lap 15 for Hamilton to pit for the intermediate, coming out behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon – Hamilton then engaged in a spirited fight with the French driver that resulted in two moments of contact and a damaged front wing for the Mercedes driver.

Given that Gasly was able to make progress on the intermediate tyre with overtakes on Zhou Guanyu and Daniel Ricciardo, Mercedes explained why they decided against bringing Hamilton in until Lap 15.

“It was all about what was happening behind Lewis on track, and he never actually had a clear stop window,” Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin explained in the team’s