Find Out How Hamilton Won The Portuguese Grand Prix

F1 Team Mercedes has explained that their call for a change in tyre set-up led to the 92nd grand victory of Lewis Hamilton in the Portuguese Grand Prix, ultimately breaking a record.

Hamilton had his 92nd career victory even after the poor start in the Portuguese Grand Prix. He was able to manage the tyres which resulted in a dominant victory with over 25 seconds lead.

Hamilton mentioned that he was struggling completely throughout the weekend due to low-grip conditions caused by the cool weather condition and sprinkle of rain.

F1 team Mercedes's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained after the race that the decision was made to use a wing level that offered Hamilton and Bottas more downforce which meant better traction.

Bottas's pace was not enough towards the end of the opening stint which left him nine seconds off his team-mate in the lead ahead of the pitstops

"On Saturday morning, we tried two different wing levels," Shovlin explained. "We'd started the weekend with a lighter wing, and I think it was definitely the right decision to go for.

"The more downforce would have helped us today, and whether the drops of rain would have turned into a proper shower.

"But [Hamilton is] more talking about how he got the balance of the car to sort of use the tyres not be too hard on either end. Qualifying was really all about warm-up, getting the temperature there.

"In the race, it's the left-hand-side tyres that get a hammering here, and just not working the front or the rear too much, because then the balance starts to get away from you.

"Lewis is just naturally good at managing the tyres. He's got this really good feel for where he's hurting them. And he's able to keep the rubber on them."

Also See:Fabio Quartararo Says He "Lost Everything" In Teruel MotoGP

F1 team Mercedes's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin

Interestingly Valtteri Bottas had requested to consider soft tyres for the second part of the race. However, the team did not considered it. Mercedes believed in keeping similar strategy as his teammate Lewis Hamilton which meant that Bottas will be required to run on a set of hard tyre.

While Bottas had reported a vibration on his tyres, Hamilton said his mediums felt in good shape, and that he could have gone further into the race before pitting.

After the pitstop, Bottas noticed that the gap between him and Hamilton grew. This was after he encountered lapped cars when exiting the pits, causing him to back off and fail to get his tyres up to temperature.

"I think the key thing here is the tyre temperature, because if you can generate temperature, your grip goes up," Shovlin explained.

"We spend 90% of races where we've actually got too much of it, and it's a case of trying to keep the tyres cool, but you're in the opposite situation here in these cold conditions made worse with a bit of light rain kicking around.

"It was most evident on that hard tyre transition. So Lewis actually got it to work quite well, quite quickly. Valtteri dropped into some backmarker traffic, which meant he was having to run at their pace, not the natural pace, and at that point, there was about 10 degrees of difference in the tyre temperature.

"You can see that it was manifesting itself as near enough a second of lap time. So the key is all in that temperature difference."

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