Quote:
Originally Posted by M5Rick
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Leclerc with a smile:
"The laps where we dumm... well, yeah, I can say it now, when we dummied him [Perez] and made him think that we were going to pit opposite: he took it and went for the second stop."
Lap 33/58: Leclerc (P3) is trailing Perez (P2) by 1.3 seconds. Ferrari team radio message for Leclerc:
"And box opposite Red Bull" + Ferrari pit crew rushes outside the pit garage with hard tires. Both Ferrari actions served to dummy Red Bull and Perez.
And, yup, Red Bull and Perez immediately took the bait:
"Box, box" team order for Perez and on lap 34/58 Perez pitted for hard tires. As internally agreed before the race, Leclerc stayed out for a 1-stop strategy. The Ferrari team order was a successful bait.
The rest is history: because of the pit stop Perez dropped back to P6 behind Hamilton, Russell, Sainz, Leclerc and Verstappen. Perez lost time moving through traffic (Hamilton fighting him the hardest), he also lost time behind backmarkers Gasly and Albon (blue flags) and failed to timely catch Leclerc who secured P2 in the race and WDC.
Well done, Ferrari. This time around Red Bull and Perez got "Ferrari'd" at their expense.
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