Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the way Lewis Hamilton bounced back to win the British Grand Prix and put his ‘bad call’ in qualifying behind shows his ‘mental strength’.
Hamilton had set the pace on the opening Q3 runs, but made a grave mistake when he chose to abandon his second attempt, as the track improved in the final sector and he was leapfrogged by five drivers – including his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, who took pole position.
Despite starting down in P6 though, Hamilton came back strong in the race and was closing on Rosberg when the German suffered a terminal gearbox problem on lap 29.
Hamilton then went on to comfortably win, taking his fifth victory of the year and giving Mercedes its eighth triumph from nine attempts.
“Hamilton showed his mental strength” as he had no competition after the other quick car broke down. He also showed he can play dirty by trying to make Nico Rosberg miss the flag on the last lap of qualifying. He did not time it right, though, and only managed to spoil Felipe Massa’s qualifying. Great sportsman…