LEWIS HAMILTON would have finished EIGHTH in the Turkish GP had he stuck to his guns and NOT made a pitstop. However, after crunching the numbers, Merc say he would have been looking at languishing down in eighth if he did as the tyres eventually failed. “However, if we look at it overall, the best time to have stopped would have been around the [Lap] 36, 37 mark, that was when Valtteri [Bottas, who eventually won the race] and Verstappen stopped. “When we eventually did call Lewis in, it was because the lap time chart that we use to make our predictions was telling us that it was not looking good. I wanted to risk it and try and go to the end, but it was my call to stay out and it didn’t work.

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