But despite Lewis driving without mistake, he had to pit in early and after that his car's balance wasn't quite as good in order to allow him fast laps. With a difficult second stint, the Brit received orders from his team to try and preserve fuel. This lead to the team's hesitant decision.
Right in the last second, McLaren's team reckoned Hamilton would have enough fuel for another fast lap in order to counter Barrichello's offensive. But when the team decided to announce Hamilton to stay for one more lap, the Brit was already heading for the pit entry.
"Before my second pitstop, I’d been saving fuel and was a bit unsure if I had enough for that extra lap or not. The pitwall had initially asked me to pit – but, just when I was coming in, they told me to stay out and do an extra lap – however, I was already inside the white line [entry to the pits] and committed, so it was too late", said Lewis.
"The call was a marginal one – the team was pushing the envelope, as I say – and it came just a little too late for me and the mechanics, who weren’t perfectly prepared. Make no mistake, I think those guys are the best in the business; what happened was simply a result of the team trying everything in their power to turn a safe second place into a possible win", declared the Brit.
"But, ultimately, we didn’t really lose anything today – it was always going to be tough to beat Rubens and what we tried wasn’t quite enough", concluded Hamilton, in an effort to stand by his team and assure the self-confident atmosphere his crew needs in order to further develop the car.
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