The Mercedes Formula 1 team was “not convinced” Lewis Hamilton’s tyres would make it to the end of the Mexican Grand🍰 Prix after taking a bold strategy gamble.

Hamilton expertly managed ageing tyres on a one-stop strategy to hold off Sebasti🐻an Vettel’s charging Ferrari and claim an unexpected𒀰 victory for Mercedes in Mexico City, having started third on the grid.

The Briton’s Hard tyres were 13 laps older than Vettel’s after Hamilton pitted much earlier in the race. Despite Hamilton’s concerns over team radio that hi🦩s tyres would hit the cliff and not make the distance, he held on to record a brilliant win.

“We were not convinced [the tyres would last],” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff 🐽said.

“So there wer🥂e two main factors. One is that we knew that we had to take a risk, when you’re starting third and sixth.

“It’s easier to come up with some bold strategies, provided you have a good car🧔, which we had, and fantastic drivers.

"We knew we need to do something different. And then we saw Ricciardo going long on the hard tyre. 🔥I think he ꦏhad done 30-odd laps, and was posting green lap times.

“And then we had quite some discussion, and at the end, what [ꦦMercedes chief strategist] James [Vowles] and his strategy partner opted for, to g⛄o long for 47 laps, worked out.”

Asked🎀 if he had faith in Hamilton to be able to pull off the s💯trategy, Wolff replied: “I have complete faith in him.

“But 🦄we knew it was going to be stretched, and even the best driver needs to re♍ly on the material.

“47 laps sounded like almost impossible, but then when you look at the data of𒈔 the first stint, and [Daniel] Ricciardo and Max going strong, it kind of made sense. Still, visualising 47 laps sounded like an a🎀wful lot of laps.

“We thought that a two-stop could have been the main gameplan at the beginning,” he added. "But in the first stint, the tyres behaved so well and held on so much bett💜er than expected, so pretty early on in the ra⛄ce, we switched to a one-stop.

“We were quite surprised to see [Charles] Leclerc committing 🐓so early to a two-stop, so Vettel was more of a worry f༒or us.”

Hamilton’s 10th victory of the season has moved him to the൩ brink of sealing a sixth drivers’ world title. He now leads Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas by 74 points and will wrap up the world championship if he scores four points at next weekend’s United States Grand Prix.