Brundle says Hamilton put team in 'no man's land'

Sky F1's Martin Brundle says Lewis Hamilton put himself and his Mercedes team in "no man's man" in the Turkish Grand Prix by overruling the Brackley squad's initial strategy call.

In the closing stages of last Sunday's race at Istanbul Park, Hamilton was told to pit to switch to a new set of intermediate tyres.

However, the Briton felt that he had more to gain by prolonging his stint on the inters or indeed perhaps by running to the end on the green-walled rubber.

Hamilton eventually head to the pits to bolt on a fresh set of tyres, but expressed his frustration with losing track position to Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly.

But Brundle believes that by delaying his tyre change, Hamilton only had himself to blame for losing out.

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"I think yesterday was a mistake on Lewis’ part," Brundle told Sky Sports.

"We have seen him overrule the team [before] and it’s worked out very well, actually. For example, in Turkey last year, when he ran right through to the end and it was a glorious victory – one of his finest, actually.

"Yesterday, I think all Mercedes had to do was mimic, to an extent, what Red Bull were doing, try to minimise the pain of him taking an engine penalty and a grid penalty to go with that.

"So, I think Lewis put his team off balance. They did a bit of a No Man’s Land stop in the end. It was too late in the day for him to use the tyres, but they had to stop."

"I’m pretty sure if we looked at Esteban Ocon’s tyres in the Alpine, for example, it was down to the canvas and I think, if they had let Lewis run to the end, Pirelli say it wouldn’t have worked out.

"Common sense tells you it probably wouldn’t have worked out, but Lewis felt he wanted to do that."

The Turkish Grand Prix wasn't the first time this season that Hamilton has found himself at odds with a strategy call by the Mercedes pitwall, having also questioned his crew's decisions in Sochi.

"Of course, in Sochi, the previous grand prix, he was complaining when he came in the pits, but the team were absolutely right to put the wet tyres on at the end, and he won that Grand Prix," added Brundle.

"So, it’s swings and roundabouts, you have to respect Lewis’ seven World titles and his gut feeling out on the track.

"At the same time, he has to respect the team have got copious amounts of information.

"They’re watching the entire race, all of the other cars and when they called him in, he kind of put them out of their stride."

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