It was one of those moments which have caught Mercedes out in the past, namely when to pit when things change unexpectedly during a race as happened during the British Grand Prix on Sunday, in which the F1 world champions slipped up with their strategy, costing Valtteri Bottas a podium if not a victory on the day.
A safety car period was triggered when Marcus Ericsson fumbled his approach to Turn 1, lost the front end of the Sauber, spun off and hit the barriers.
Ferrari were quick to react and pitted both their cars for fresh tyres while the Mercedes pitwall kept their boys out and as it turned out Bottas paid the price.
It was argued afterwards that it would have made sense to split the strategy and keep Hamilton out longer on the softs due to his recovery drive while pitting the Reds by pitting Bottas for fresh softs too, but they failed to do so and no doubt we will hear why in their race debrief later in the week.
After the second safety car period, it did not take long for Sebastian Vettel to dispatch Bottas for the lead of the race, the fresher Pirelli soft tyres on the Ferrari aided by DRS allowed the German to be daring on the brakes into Brooklands (Turn 6) and take the lead where he stayed until the chequered flag waved to end the race.
Meanwhile, Bottas tripped up on wasted tyres which had gone off the cliff, powerless to stop the passage to the podium of teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
After finishing fourth, Bottas explained, "We took the risk to stay out and try to win the race. At that point, if the team had asked me if I wanted to win or secure second place, I would have said 'go for the win' but looking back, for the result it would have been better to stop. That's a fact."
"Afterwards it's quite easy to say we should have pitted to keep the position. We took a risk to be first but ended up fourth so I think it was five laps too much. I thought there was a possibility to go to the end."
"From our calculations, it should have been OK but it wasn't. I was really trying everything I could to stay ahead. I tried my best but it wasn't good enough."
With regards to Vettel's clinical race winning overtake, the Finn said, "He dived in and there wasn't anything l could do any more. It was like driving on ice. I did everything I could to defend but it was just a matter of time. It was just a matter of time and then it was the same with Lewis and Kimi."
Bottas leaves Silverstone fifth in the championship standings with 104 points, 59 adrift of his teammate Hamilton and 67 shy of Vettel.
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