Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has blamed "a misjudgement" on
behalf of Lewis Hamilton as the reason why he did not follow
through on a team order on the final lap of Sunday's Azerbaijan
Grand Prix. Hamilton had been instructed to allow past team-mate
Charles Leclerc almost as a 'thank you' gesture for the Monégasque
giving the seven-time F1 champion the opportunity earlier in the
race to hunt down several drivers ahead of him. Leclerc had pitted
relatively early before switching tyres, whilst Hamilton went
longer before taking on his preferred mediums, and was soon on the
back of the lead Ferrari in eighth, which was chasing Racing Bulls'
Liam Lawson in fifth, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in his Red Bull and
McLaren's Lando Norris. Hamilton, however, was unable to make any
inroads due to the DRS train that had developed, leading to the
instruction to allow by Leclerc. The 40-year-old stated after the
race that he held on whilst he felt there was even a "0.001 per
cent" chance of passing Norris, until realising he would be unable
to make the move, before eventually easing off the throttle and
braking, only to cross the line just under half a second ahead of
Leclerc. Hamilton later said he would apologise for his error;
Leclerc, meanwhile, expressed a degree of frustration that the
Briton had not respected the unwritten rule that exists between
team-mates in such situations, hoping that when "sexier positions"
were up for grabs, rather than eighth and ninth, the situation
would be different. Asked about the confusion that seemingly arose,
speaking to the media, including RacingNews365 , Vasseur said:
"Confusion? No. "The situation was clear for us, that Lewis had a
tyre advantage, and we asked Charles to let him go to try to
overtake Tsunoda, Norris. "On top of that, Charles had an issue
with [energy] recovery; we were not at the top with the engine, so
it was the best option for us to do this move. "We then asked to
swap back, and it looks like Lewis had a misjudgment on the
position of the start-finish line."
behalf of Lewis Hamilton as the reason why he did not follow
through on a team order on the final lap of Sunday's Azerbaijan
Grand Prix. Hamilton had been instructed to allow past team-mate
Charles Leclerc almost as a 'thank you' gesture for the Monégasque
giving the seven-time F1 champion the opportunity earlier in the
race to hunt down several drivers ahead of him. Leclerc had pitted
relatively early before switching tyres, whilst Hamilton went
longer before taking on his preferred mediums, and was soon on the
back of the lead Ferrari in eighth, which was chasing Racing Bulls'
Liam Lawson in fifth, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in his Red Bull and
McLaren's Lando Norris. Hamilton, however, was unable to make any
inroads due to the DRS train that had developed, leading to the
instruction to allow by Leclerc. The 40-year-old stated after the
race that he held on whilst he felt there was even a "0.001 per
cent" chance of passing Norris, until realising he would be unable
to make the move, before eventually easing off the throttle and
braking, only to cross the line just under half a second ahead of
Leclerc. Hamilton later said he would apologise for his error;
Leclerc, meanwhile, expressed a degree of frustration that the
Briton had not respected the unwritten rule that exists between
team-mates in such situations, hoping that when "sexier positions"
were up for grabs, rather than eighth and ninth, the situation
would be different. Asked about the confusion that seemingly arose,
speaking to the media, including RacingNews365 , Vasseur said:
"Confusion? No. "The situation was clear for us, that Lewis had a
tyre advantage, and we asked Charles to let him go to try to
overtake Tsunoda, Norris. "On top of that, Charles had an issue
with [energy] recovery; we were not at the top with the engine, so
it was the best option for us to do this move. "We then asked to
swap back, and it looks like Lewis had a misjudgment on the
position of the start-finish line."
The post Lewis Hamilton 'misjudgement' blamed for Charles Leclerc mix-up appeared first on RacingNews365.