There was us thinking, during the Italian Grand Prix, that Mercedes sold Ferrari epic dummy by sending their crew out onto the pitlane suggesting they were stopping one of their drivers, shortly after on that lap Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari pitted early but for Lewis Hamilton, there was no pitstop, it was hammertime instead!
It looked like a clear case of Silver Arrows sucker punching the Prancing Horse and as it panned out Ferrari indeed did pit their driver far too early which made him easy meat for Hamilton with fresher rubber when it mattered, the Briton overtook with relative ease, left the Finn struggling in his dust and went on to score a major upset.
But Mercedes chief Toto Wolff and Hamilton denied that there was anything special about their pitstop tactics, but rather a strategic choice they made amid a list of alternative options.
Wolff revealed to reporters, “It wasn’t a phantom, we were prepared to do the opposite. If Kimi wouldn’t have pitted we would have done it. And insofar as we were prepared, it wasn’t a phantom.”
Race winner Hamilton was on the same page as his team chief, “Obviously I’d seen several different simulations of what could happen in the race. Communication was really on point between myself and the team, back and forth.”
"I was wondering if they were going to pull me in one lap before him, so I could undercut him, but that didn’t happen,” added Hamilton who extended his championship lead to 30 points as he claimed his sixth victory of the season.
Big Question: Did Mercedes sucker Ferrari but are not admitting?
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