"He was brave enough to stick with a difficult choice," says Damon
Monday 13 June 2016 12:14, UK
Sky F1's Damon Hill has hailed Lewis Hamilton's 44th career victory in Sunday's Monaco GP as one of the best of his career.
Hamilton ended his seven-month victory drought, and eight-year wait for a second win in Monte Carlo, to ignite his season after a string of costly reliability issues and collisions at the previous five races.
The Mercedes driver's race turned on several key moments during an incident-filled, wet-dry 78 laps - with Red Bull's botched final tyre stop for Daniel Ricciardo proving the decisive moment.
And while Hill acknowledged Ricciardo's pit-stop misfortune "clearly cost him the victory", the 1996 world champion argued it should not detract from Hamilton's own "amazing" performance.
Monaco Grand Prix driver ratings
"That was probably one of his best-ever victories," said Hill. "I really do think that.
"I'm thinking of Donington with Ayrton [Senna, in 1993] when he didn't do as many stops. Lewis has only done one stop and went all the way on wets, then went onto slicks and just made them last.
"Amazing."
Hamilton first moved into the lead mid-way through the race when he and Mercedes "gambled" on completing an extended opening stint on full wet tyres in a bid to go straight onto slicks when the track dried out. Ricciardo, who held a 13-second lead at the time, pitted for intermediates on lap 23 and lost track position.
"He was brave enough to stick with a difficult choice," added Hill of Hamilton's strategy.
Hamilton said afterwards "it was the hardest race I can remember having to do" and Johnny Herbert praised the Briton's management of the grand prix.
"Seeing he was on those wet tyres for as long as he was, he had a very good game in his head," said the Sky F1 pundit and three-time race winner. "He stayed out as long as he could.
"Yes, Ricciardo caught him up, but Lewis held him up. Was he very fortunate with that Red Bull pit stop? He was, but he did a fantastic job all the same."
