Mercedes have explained why they did not give Lewis Hamilton a fresh engine after his poor qualifying session in the United States.
Technical director James Allison could have changed Hamilton’s car set-up but opted against doing so, believing the veteran’s qualifying position, 19th, and the vehicle’s bodywork was enough to give him a solid enough race.
“It was an option to do what George did, to start from the pit lane having changed the set-up on his car between qualifying and the race,” said Allison in a video released by the team.
“But we didn’t actually have any reason to think there was much wrong with Lewis’s set-up.
“He had his best bodywork on, he had the grid position we had, which is further up the road than starting from the pit lane. So why not start where you’d qualified even if it wasn’t the place you wished you’d qualified? So that was uppermost in our mind with respect to set-up changes.”
Hamilton ended up beached on lap three, spinning into the gravel.