Why did Mercedes not pit Lewis Hamilton for the fastest lap when he was 30 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen?

Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has shed some light on why Lewis Hamilton did not pit for the fastest lap during the Qatar Grand Prix. In a team debrief, he explained the strategy behind timing the pitstops to go after the fastest lap during a race.

Commenting on Lewis Hamilton’s missed opportunity, Andrew Shovlin said:

“Red Bull deliberately time it, so that from their stop, all that Max is able to do is an out-lap and a flying lap, so that he can then take that fastest lap, which he actually held anyway from the previous stint. With Lewis, if we had pitted after Max had pitted, all he would have been able to do is the out-lap and that obviously doesn’t count for the fastest lap.”

Shovlin explains Mercedes' fastest lap strategy in this video (from 6:35 onwards):

Red Bull F1 driver Max Verstappen’s fastest lap in the Qatar Grand Prix was clocked at 1 minute 23.196 seconds on the final lap of the race. According to the Mercedes engineer, Red Bull had timed the pitstop precisely in order to help their driver claim the fastest lap.

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Mercedes explain importance of strategy behind claiming fastest lap

Although Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton sliced into Max Verstappen's lead after the Qatar Grand Prix, the gap between the two would have been seven points had the latter not clocked the fastest lap of the race, which fetched him an extra point.

Explaining how Mercedes execute the fastest lap strategy, Shovlin said:

“So it is quiet normal that you leave it to the penultimate lap because when you do stop, you open up the window for the race leader. If you do it on the penultimate lap, that means they have no opportunity to set a proper lap time.”

In racing conditions, if there is enough time to pit a driver for the fastest lap, teams normally time their stop in a way that their rival team does not have time to respond. Since the fastest lap accounts for an extra championship point, nailing the timing of the pitstop is critical, more so at such a critical juncture in the title race, when a single point could decide the outcome.