Hamilton says he wouldn't have made late stop at Silverstone if he knew position was at risk

Lewis Hamilton says he would have questioned Ferrari’s decision to make a pit stop late in the British Grand Prix had he known the risks of losing a position.

The majority of the field stopped for soft tires under a safety car in the closing stages after Max Verstappen crashed, with Hamilton following teammate and race leader Charles Leclerc in from second place. Mercedes opted to do the opposite with George Russell and moved ahead of Hamilton into a position that Russell retained as the race never restarted, with Hamilton saying he didn’t know track position was going to be given up at the time.

“What difference does it make?” Hamilton said of the call. “Of course [it cost three points]. The team asked me to stop. I assumed in stopping that we would be holding position. If they told me, ‘You're stopping and you're losing position,’ I wouldn't have done it.”

However, Hamilton says he didn’t have the performance to match Leclerc during Sunday’s race, as he felt he went the wrong way with his car set-up following Saturday's running.

“Winning at this Grand Prix is such a special experience and this is a great result for our team, so congratulations to our team” he said. “Yeah, I just didn’t have it. I jumped the start, already got a five-second penalty, but Charles had the pace on me. I struggled with the balance of the car, but I gave it everything and I’m grateful to be up here.

“Charles did a mega job, fully deserves the win. From my side, pretty bad from the get-go. I jumped the start, which I have done very few times in the 380-odd races that I've done. And then just balance-wise, I noticed Charles went up on his balance, I think compared to qualifying, added more wing, and I felt the car was really oversteering with the diff settings that we had had. And so, I took out wing and then I had the biggest understeer at the beginning of the race.

“So, he just pulled away from me. I just couldn't even turn the car until halfway kind of through that first stint, I managed to start turning the car a little bit better with some diff changes, but by then the gap was already huge. And then the five-second at the stop, and then there's just one thing after the other.”

Despite the disappointment of not being able to fight for victory himself, Hamilton says the overall result and performance bodes well for Ferrari’s outlook this year.

“It's amazing” Hamilton said. “It's amazing to see the pace that we've had this weekend at this sort of circuit. We definitely didn't anticipate it. So just phenomenal to be strong weekend as a team and come away with really good points is really, really special.”