Despite taking the race lead into the first corner after getting a better getaway, Lewis Hamilton could not hold on to it after two successful undercut strategies from Red Bull denied him of his sixth win at COTA.

Silver Arrows extended the Briton’s both first and second pit stops in order to charge down the field at the closing stages. However, Mercedes’ strategy backfired as Hamilton could not get close enough and eventually he crossed the checkered flag 1.333 seconds behind his title rival, Max Verstappen.

Meanwhile, the Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes Silver Arrows would have had a better chance of winning the United States Grand Prix if they had pitted Lewis Hamilton on lap 8.

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What did Andrew Shovlin say?

When asked what the Brackley-based team would have done to win the United States Grand Prix, Andrew Shovlin said, “To have a crystal ball and predict that we will be so strong on hard tires.”

“You would have to take the first pit stop around the eighth lap and defend your lead. We were very weak in the middle ones,” concluded the Mercedes trackside engineering director.

I don’t know what we could have done differently: Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, reveals he was not sure what Silver Arrows should have done differently at the US Grand Prix in order to defeat their arch-rivals, Red Bull.

As quoted by Motorsport, when asked how the race pan out for him, Lewis Hamilton replied, “It was a fun race. We had a good start, and he [Max Verstappen] seemed to be quite close throughout on the medium tire.”

“Then obviously they stopped extremely early and just tried to offset myself after that. I was hoping that would give us a chance to fight late on, but I think track position was key today.”

“I don’t know what we could have done differently. I’ll sit down and talk with the team afterwards. I think the team did a great job today, and it was what we had,” concluded the Mercedes driver.

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Can Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton turn their fortune around at the Mexican Grand Prix? What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.