Tyre strategy was central to one of the most closely fought grands prix in recent history, with a thrilling finale set up by a safety car when there were just ten laps left to go. After the restart, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton led on the medium tyre from his teammate Nico Rosberg, who used a different two-stop strategy to finish the race on the faster soft tyre. Despite having a tyre that was theoretically slower, Hamilton was able to hold off Rosberg – who set the fastest lap – to take back-to-back victories.