Mercedes have revealed a key part of their strategy in last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

With tyre degradation a key issue for the Silver Arrows, and really for the rest of the field that day, the team employed an early stop strategy in an attempt to force a move from Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull.

Hamilton qualified third, behind pole position holder Ricciardo and long-term rival Sebastian Vettel in second.

After trying his best to gain some ground on the two leaders, Hamilton darted into the pits on lap 12, knowing that it would almost be impossible to overtake the two in the narrow streets of Monaco.

When Hamilton pitted on lap 12, most assumed it was an attempt at an ‘undercut’ of the leaders, a strategy which means employing an earlier stop in order to try and catch your foe out during the pit-stop phase of the race.

Such a strategy is common in Monaco, where overtaking opportunities are few and far between.

However, Mercedes have revealed that the move was more in desperation rather than a calculated attempt at an undercut.

Despite pushing his car to catch the leaders for 12 laps, it became apparent to Mercedes that the softer grade Pirelli tyres that were selected for the weekend were not viable to mount a sustained challenge with.

Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director for Mercedes, explained: “We were already seeing the signs of degradation on the hyper-soft with Valtteri and you could see that when it came in, it was pretty extreme and you lost a lot of lap time very quickly.

“That’s because when you lose the front grip, the front slides more and it becomes a bit of a vicious circle.

“With Lewis, there were a few factors. We knew we were going to lose a bit of time quite quickly and if we came in, went to a faster tyre and we could push, we could actually pull the leaders in.

“When we can’t do a long stint on the hyper, we’re trying to prevent them from doing a long stint on the hyper too.

“If we had stayed out with Lewis, we would just have been losing race time. At that point, it was just a protective strategy rather than an aggressive one as you might do with an undercut.”

It was apparent that drivers were struggling with the hyper soft and ultra soft tyres that weekend, and most drivers were forced to run a managed race, with the actual race pace several seconds off qualifying lap times.

With such difficult conditions, a third and fifth finish for the defending Constructors' Champions is a satisfactory result

“Our own two cars had a fairly difficult afternoon, struggling a bit with graining on that hyper-soft tyre early on and then there isn’t really any opportunity to pass,” Shovlin added.

“So third and fifth for Mercedes wasn’t the best result but this was a circuit where we were never going to be the best car.

“We were in damage limitation mode and actually it was quite a solid finish for the weekend overall.”