Mercedes did run Brembo rear brakes in German Grand Prix
Mercedes Formula 1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg did run with Brembo brake material in the German Grand Prix, AUTOSPORT can reveal
Following Hamilton's right front brake disc failure with a Brembo in qualifying, the team did not want to risk a repeat of problems in the race so was keen to switch materials.
With Hamilton having evaluated Carbone Industrie discs earlier in the weekend before switching to Brembo fronts for qualifying, Mercedes felt the safest solution would be to revert to what he had run before.
After discussions with the FIA on Sunday morning, it was agreed that Mercedes' drivers would be allowed to swap brake disc supplier without further penalty as long as the new products were similar in weight, inertia and function.
The FIA stewards report duly confirmed that Hamilton had changed both the front and rear brake disc material, while Rosberg had altered the rear.
But while it was initially assumed that this meant Hamilton had switched to Carbone Industrie at the front and rear, and Rosberg swapped from Brembo to Carbone Industrie at the rear, this was in fact not the case.
Sources with good knowledge of the situation have confirmed that both Mercedes drivers kept Brembo brake discs on the rear.
The qualifying issue had left them more cautious about the exact type used however, so the team decided to switch to an older and proven specification of Brembo brake disc material that had encountered no problems before.
Both drivers then ran with Carbone Industrie discs at the front because the team had not experienced any issues with them over the German GP weekend.
The revelation that Mercedes stuck with Brembo shows that the team has no wider safety concerns about the Italian brake company's product, despite the failure on Saturday.
Brembo has promised a detailed investigation into what caused Hamilton's disc to split into three, and is adamant that it will get some answers once it has gathered all its telemetry data.
A Brembo spokesman told AUTOSPORT: "We are calm because of the fact that it was a single episode and because we will discover the causes which determined the issue."
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