F1 boss Ross Brawn says Lewis Hamilton's triumph in the Emilia Romagna GP was rooted in a series of stunning laps delivered by the Mercedes driver at the end of his first stint.
Hamilton spent the first part of Sunday's race at Imola running behind teammate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Max Verstappen before inheriting the lead when his rivals pitted for fresh tyres one lap apart from each other.
In charge of proceedings, Hamilton pulled out the stops in a series of new fastest laps, urging his team to not stop him as he extended his opening stint on the medium tyre.
Brawn reckons the Briton's effort ahead of his tyre rotation on lap 29, which superbly coincided with a Virtual Safety Car triggered by Esteben Ocon's stricken Renault, laid the groundwork for his 93rd F1 win.
"The great world champions win races they shouldn’t win. Sunday’s race win for Lewis at Imola was the perfect demonstration of this," commented Brawn in his post-race Monday column for Formula1.com.
"It is unfortunate Valtteri had a problem, but you have to be there to take advantage when it happens.
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"Stunning laps at end of first stint put Lewis in the right place. Yes, the Virtual Safety Car played into his hands, but he was doing the job for himself anyway.
"There’s a good chance he would have come out in front of Valtteri, but if he didn’t, we would have had great a battle with Lewis wearing new tyres and a prefect car."
"Mercedes had a interesting decision to make when Lewis asked them not to box him, when he found himself in free air in the lead of the race.
"He clearly judged he had tyres left, something that may have not been so clear on the pit wall.
"Whilst balancing a fair decision between their drivers, Mercedes also wanted to beat Verstappen, and the known damage to Valtteri’s car was also a factor.
"I think they made the right call, and while Valtteri could have felt aggrieved, with the damage he was carrying which significantly hurt his pace, he won’t feel too sore about it."
As the man who guided Mercedes' return to Grand Prix racing in 2010 and supplied the team's foundation, Brawn witnessed firsthand the German outfit's development and ramp-up in F1.
And the Briton says the Brackley which has dominated the sport since the advent of the hybrid era in F1 in 2014 deserves "everything it has achieved".
"Mercedes are going through a stunning period since 2014 and on Sunday, they took away a record which I was personally involved in during my time at Ferrari," he said.
"When you achieve those things, you know that one day it may be broken. The fact it has been broken by a group of people I know well, worked closely with and count as friends makes it more special. The core of the organisation is still the group that came through the Brawn GP phoenix.
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"They deserve everything they have achieved. Congratulations to Toto [Wolff] for being such a great leader, their drivers for delivering and Mercedes for having the vision.
"Their challenge now is to maintain that consistency with the financial, sporting and technical changes that will be implemented over the next couple of years. These are not small changes and undoubtably have the potential to change the competitive landscape."
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