Lewis Hamilton Admits Mercedes Engine Change ‘Not the Smartest Move’
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Lewis Hamilton
Race fans all over the world were shocked when the seven-time world champion struggled during the start of the sprint qualifying at Monza. A rare instance left Lewis Hamilton trailing behind title rival Max Verstappen and McLaren dup Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris. As things stand, the Mercedes’ ace driver would start the race from P4 on Sunday on a track where overtaking seems to be near impossible.
However, Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas was exceptional during the sprint qualifying and managed to fetch the pole position. But as Mercedes opted to take a fresh engine for the Finn driver, his pole would not mean anything as he still requires to start from the last position on the grid. Now with no help from Bottas, how will Hamilton get past the McLaren roadblock and hunt Max Verstappen?
What Did Lewis Hamilton Suggest?
Asked if he would be happy to take the same hit, Lewis Hamilton replied as quoted by GPFans, “I don’t think that is on the cards and I’m not sure that would be the smartest thing to do at this point. At the moment, I have still got two engines and there is currently no plan for me to take an extra engine, hopefully, but we shall see.”
After the sprint, runner-up Verstappen extended his points lead over Hamilton to five, leaving the seven-time champion facing “damage limitation” going into the race.
“It generally should be a relatively easy race for Max unless I can get past the two McLarens early on and then challenge,” added Hamilton.
Having said that, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said, “We’ll have a look at strategic options for Lewis. But the reality is that if we struggled to overtake the McLarens [in the sprint] we’ll face the same situation [in the race] and that’s going to hand Max a very easy win. We need to look at every possible opportunity as it’s our job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
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Yakshpat Bhargava
(3989 Articles Published)