‘This was the biggest f**k up’: Lewis Hamilton left frustrated after Mercedes’ strange strategy call
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Lewis Hamilton was jumped at the safety car restart by Max Verstappen, and he was certainly not happy with how it happened.
At one point, it seemed as if Max Verstappen would have to overtake Lewis Hamilton to win the race, on a track where overtaking is not easy. But through a series of unfortunate circumstances, that has gone away, and Lewis Hamilton has had to settle for a fourth-place finish, where he had started.
At one point, Lewis Hamilton was leading the race, but then two safety cars kind of destroyed the strategy and the race for the Briton. On lap 45, Yuki Tsunoda stopped on the side of the track, saying his tyre was loose. But the mechanics told him to continue. Then he came back in a few laps later, but when he went out, he stopped on the track once again, bringing out a virtual safety car.
Verstappen was in the lead by lap 54, but there was more pain to come for Lewis Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas stopped just before turn 1 on lap 55, which brought out a full safety car. When the safety car came in at the end of lap 60, Hamilton was in the lead, but he was on medium tyres, compared to the soft tyres behind him. As expected, he couldn’t keep the lead.
A horrible ordeal for Lewis Hamilton
At the restart, Lewis Hamilton was almost instantly overtaken by Max Verstappen, which would give him some flashbacks to Abu Dhabi last year, as the older medium tyres basically left him dead in the water. A lap later, his teammate, George Russell overtook him. Later, even Charles Leclerc overtook him.
What could have been a victory for him turned out to be not even a podium finish. Understandably, he was very angry on the radio, and apparently did not even congratulate George Russell following the end of the race. On the radio, Hamilton said: “I can’t believe you screwed me like that. I can’t describe how pissed I am.”
Despite his understandable emotions, Hamilton still kept it classy on the radio after the race, saying: “To all the mechanics fantastic job today, those were the best pits stops we’ve had all year so thank you for the continued efforts. Let’s keep pushing, still got points today.”
This was perhaps one of only two times where Lewis Hamilton has competed for the victory this season. Now, as it was then, a (un)timely safety car ruined his charge, and he had to settle for a lower finish. As for his teammate, George Russell, the team made the correct call, and Russell reaped the rewards with a P2 finish.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)