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          Valtteri Bottas' tyres were down to the canvas in Spanish GP

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          Advantage Mercedes as Ferrari falters (1:33)

          Jonathan Legard looks back on a disastrous race for Ferrari, while rival Mercedes seals a 1-2 in Spain. (1:33)

          • Laurence EdmondsonMay 13, 2018, 07:01 PM
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              • Joined ESPN in 2009
              • An FIA accredited F1 journalist since 2011

          BARCELONA, Spain -- When he jumped out of his car to celebrate Mercedes' first one-two victory of the season, Valtteri Bottas looked back at his front tyres to see there was almost no rubber left on the carcass.

          After making an early pit stop on lap 19, Bottas then had to make a set of medium compound tyres last 47 laps in order to complete an unlikely one-stop strategy. Ahead of the race no-one thought the medium tyre would go much further than 40 laps, and Bottas had originally set out on a two-stop strategy.

          But when Sebastian Vettel was forced to make a second stop due to excessive tyre wear, Bottas had a chance to secure second by going to the end of the race on his medium tyres. He managed to do so, but was warned twice by his engineer to look after his tyres in the high-speed corners at Turn 3 and Turn 9.

          "There was nothing left on the tyres at the end of the race," he said. "It was down to the canvas and for me it always felt like, when I was trying to save it, the next few corners I had no grip because I lost so much temperature. When there is no surface left on the tyre it is so easy to lose temperature and if you let it switch off you are done and you are going to start locking up.

          "So I was just trying to keep it alive even though it was risky when there is nothing left. When you are going through Turn 3 and Turn 9 and putting energy through the tyre laterally there is always a risk that you really damage the tyre and having a puncture or something. I felt that was the way to go."

          Bottas said he was surprised a one-stop strategy was possible.

          "All the compounds lasted a lot longer than we ever expected. We thought there would be no way to do a one stop or we could do it but it would be a lot slower than a two stop. But we found out about it half way through the race and then we made the decision even though we stopped quite early for the mediums.

          "We did 47 laps with that set of tyres, which was quite risky, but it brought the result for us. Even though we could have continued longer on the softs, for my end result there was no difference."