Lewis Hamilton believes going on the alternate tyre strategy cost him a shot at his first victory of the 2022 season during the Mexico Grand Prix. Mercedes elected to start him on the Medium tyres and switched to the Hards in the second stint until the end of the race, anticipating Red Bull to utilise a two-stop strategy. It looked like Hamilton was quicker initially compared to the lead Red Bull, who was on a Soft-to-Medium tyre strategy. He was ultimately unable to get close on track or pass on strategy, as Red Bull kept Verstappen out until the finish. "I was so close in that first stint, but I think the Red Bull were just clearly too fast today and ultimately they had the better tyre strategy," Hamilton told media.
Hamilton: We should've started on the Soft
McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo showed with a late stop for a set of Softs how much quicker the deficit was to the Medium and Hard, picking off positions to make it back into the top ten. However, such a strategy would not have been possible for Hamilton because he didn't have a new set of Soft tyres left in his allocation, having used them earlier in the weekend. With it being a similar case for Verstappen, the Mercedes driver feels they would've been better starting on a used set of Soft tyres instead. "I'm not sure it was the right tyre at the end. I thought we should have started on a Soft, but obviously we had the opposite tyre, and it was okay in the first stint, but that hard tyre was just an offset. "I have so much love for Mexico and for the people here, what a great race and event that put on this weekend."
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