F1 commentator: "I think Lewis put his team off-balance"

"We have seen him overrule the team in the past and it's worked out very well - for example in Turkey last year when he ran right through to the end and it was a glorious victory," Brundle told Sky News. Unfortunately, Sunday was not going to be a repeat of the 2020 edition at Istanbul Park. "But yesterday, I think all Mercedes had to do was mimic to an extent what Red Bull were doing, try to minimise the pain of him taking a new engine and grid penalty to go with that."

Respect for Hamilton

In the end, Hamilton finished fifth and saw title rival Max Verstappen take eight more points. That could presumably have been less if the Mercedes driver had switched to new intermediates ten laps earlier. "I think Lewis put his team off-balance and it was a bit of a no-mans stop in the end."

Brundle continued, ""But at the same he has to respect that his team have got a copious amount of information, they're watching the entire race, all of the other cars and when they called him in, he kind of put them out of their stride", said the F1 commentator, who believes it is "not the end of the world". "Obviously he was tantalisingly close to third place and he felt that would really have been a great day out."

Battle Red Bull and Mercedes

The difference is currently six points in the world championship with six weekends to go. For the last few races, Mercedes seem to have the faster car. ""Red Bull will be concerned at the raw pace of the Mercedes over the weekend, Valtteri Bottas was outstanding in every respect and he will be in there helping Lewis as well for the world championship," Brundle concluded.