Valtteri Bottas was worried Lewis Hamilton would stay on a one-stop strategy and scupper his Japanese Grand Prix chances.
The Finn became the first driver ever to win after starting on the second row at Suzuka, with the decisive moment coming at the start when he launched past the two Ferrari’s before Turn 1.
After that point, the race was largely dictated by tyres, but it was all under control for the Mercedes driver except for those laps his teammate stayed out.
“Everything was going really smoothly, just the second stint was full of traffic and I was passing backmarkers all the time, so I couldn’t get into a good rhythm during that stint,” Bottas explained via Crash.net.
“Otherwise, Lewis still hadn’t done his second stop and I was slightly concerned that his tyres could last the distance because maybe he had managed them well, but he was on the medium [compound] and we struggled massively on that tyre.”
Bottas’ concern was justified too, as Hamilton confirmed: “Naturally, while I was never going to stay out, I thought about staying out but by that time I had already pushed so much to close the gap to Seb,” Lewis explained.
Instead, though the world champion regrets what he saw as mismanagement which denied him the chance to try it and likely cost him a second-place finish
“With better guidance, I think I probably could have. They said when they put the tyre on they would be going to a two-stop because the degradation is higher,” Hamilton said.
“The direction I was given in terms of having to close the gap to Seb, every time I was having to close this gap, I was using the tyres up a lot.
“I would like to have driven differently in that second stint to stretch it out as far as we could. We should have at least got a 1-2 today I think but the strategy wasn’t optimum.
“There have been multiple scenarios during the year where that has been the case but nevertheless Valtteri did a good job.”
Indeed, it was a great day for Bottas, who scored his first victory since Baku, and Mercedes as they made F1 history.
“From my side, it was a very good race and on top of that, I’m very, very happy for every single team member for winning the sixth constructors’ title in a row,” he said.
“So, it’s not just the result today, it’s the whole season and I’m very, very proud.”