Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has described Lewis Hamilton’s move on Sebastian Vettel as a moment that “swings championships”.
The Briton kept the Ferrari driver within his sights on Sunday in Bahrain, as a decision to use soft tyres in the middle stint didn’t offer the performance that was expected.
But once on the mediums, Hamilton quickly reeled in Vettel and made a bold move at Turn 4 which then saw the German spin on exit, taking him out of contention.
“Lewis fought a fight with a weapon that maybe wasn’t on his opponent’s level,” Wolff claimed, suggesting the Ferrari was faster.
“Staying within the DRS helped us to stay behind and helped us to stay close and that was the crucial battle.
“If he wouldn’t have won that battle [with Vettel] it would have been Sebastian winning the race and these are the little differences that can change race results and can swing championships.”
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Indeed, in addition to Hamilton’s overtaking prowess, Mercedes’ reliability then came to the fore as the world champion benefited from Charles Leclerc’s heartbreaking engine issue.
“We’re walking away with 43 points from this weekend, but it is clear that we were very fortunate,” Wolff noted.
And, looking forward, despite Mercedes securing 87 of 88 points on offer so far, the Austrian isn’t taking anything for granted.
“We are lacking straight-line speed which is very important in China, so we need to stick our heads together and analyse why we were struggling with our pace both in qualifying and in the race.
“It’s a very close fight and we need to make sure to bring our A game in order to be competitive in Shanghai.”
