After the safety car had entered the track at the start of the Portuguese Grand Prix, the race was restarted in lap seven. Lewis Hamilton did not make the best impression and saw Max Verstappen immediately pass him by. Two weeks earlier in Imola, the champion also happened at the restart, when he was overtaken by rookie Yuki Tsunoda, albeit not that the Japanese spun immediately afterwards.
According to Jolyon Palmer, this exposes a weak point of the Briton, while rival Max Verstappen is actually making an impression on that point. He explains from the drivers perspective how a safety car restart works. In Portimao, according to the former Renault driver, it makes sense to be the leader of the race to wait as long as possible to get on the gas.
“On circuits with long straights we often see drivers waiting for a long time. In Portugal that was the best Valtteri Bottas could do. That way it is more difficult for the drivers behind him to take advantage of the slipstream on the straight, because the speeds are considerably lower due to the long wait. Especially with the current, larger cars, this is the best way. “
So for Bottas the motto was simple: go on the gas as late as possible. However, the drivers behind him have a hard time, according to Palmer. “They have to be ready to go at any moment. Hamilton and Verstappen each had a different method last weekend during those last moments before the restart of the race. Hamilton used the ‘conventional’ method. He stayed as close to Bottas as possible. without warming up his tires, he was purely focused on his predecessor. “
“Verstappen dropped back a bit further”, Palmer continues his analysis. “He warmed up his tires more and went on the gas and then the brakes again, in order to get as much temperature in the tires as possible at the last moment before the restart. Hamilton, but Max must have been very sure that Bottas would not be on the gas after turn fourteen, because then he would have been hit. Since Max was right, he immediately benefited from his slightly warmer tires. “
Palmer saw how Verstappen’s approach had a second advantage over Hamilton’s. “Because Max slipped back slightly, he had the chance to react prematurely to Bottas’ start. If Verstappen had hit the gas too early, he could still have gotten off the gas before he passed Hamilton and “He had a great assessment of the situation because he dropped back a little and went on the gas almost at the same time as Bottas. It was a fantastic restart.”
Hamilton admits afterwards that he reacted too slowly, because he just looked in his mirrors where Max was. Palmer questions this. “Checking your mirrors is not necessary at all during a restart, especially at such an important time. He should have known Max would be very close to him, he shouldn’t have checked that. Besides, Lewis was one of the drivers. who was also overtaken in Imola at the restart, so it is already the second race in a row that this has happened to him, “said the F1 analyst, who thinks his compatriot will not let this happen again.
“The rest of the race showed that Hamilton is performing at the top of his game and he more than made up for his mistake. He will now be focused on not repeating such a restart, because another day can be done. a mistake might be very costly. “
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