Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll battle for position during the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
Two of the four cars were found to have excessive wear on the planks, meaning Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from second place, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc disqualified from sixth., former F1 team manager and journalist Peter Windsor examined the scenario and said he believes the long first stints – when the cars are at their heaviest – may have been a contributing factor in the excessive wear rates as both Leclerc and Hamilton went long.
“Charles Leclerc did 23 laps on his first set of tyres with that off the line, with a heavy load of fuel. Daniel Ricardo, also on a one-stop strategy , 22 laps. “Is that homework by Red Bull that they were very aware of the problems you can have with the wear rate on the skid pads, on full tanks?” he questioned.
“So that is the time you want to eliminate. So, is it any surprise that of the cars measured – Charles Leclerc, 23, Lewis Hamilton, 20 – only Daniel Ricardo did more laps on his first stint than Hamilton?