Lewis Hamilton says he’ll apologize to Charles Leclerc for failing to provide a place again to his teammate on the finish of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Ferrari break up methods with its two vehicles on Sunday, with Hamilton beginning on the arduous compound from twelfth and Leclerc on the medium from tenth. That meant within the second half of the race, Hamilton was on the faster medium tire, and when he caught Leclerc – who was caught in the back of a practice of vehicles together with Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris – Ferrari imposed staff orders to let Hamilton attempt to discover a well beyond these forward.
When Hamilton failed to take action, the instruction was given within the closing phases to swap positions as soon as once more, however regardless of the seven-time world champion slowing considerably on the pit straight, he says he didn’t time the transfer appropriately as he nonetheless crossed the road earlier than Leclerc overtook him.
“Clearly I used to be faster, however Charles was gracious to let me by,” Hamilton mentioned. “On the finish I bought the message actually late on it, and I used to be like zoned in on the automotive in entrance of me, regardless that there was like 0.001 % probability of passing, I used to be nonetheless hopeful, perhaps.
“Principally I did raise on the straight and did truly brake, however he missed it by like 4 tenths, so it was only a misjudgment from myself. So I will apologize to Charles, as a result of on the finish of the day it is eighth and ninth, nevertheless it received’t occur once more.
“There was by no means a thought that we had been going to be in that place, so we did not discuss it earlier than.”
Leclerc himself downplayed the incident, however says it will be extra problematic if the 2 drivers had been combating for extra important factors.
“I feel it was very clear, however I actually do not take care of an eighth place on the finish,” Leclerc mentioned. “I do not suppose that this must be the speaking level. Sadly, we now have been very sluggish all weekend and that is the place we must always give attention to. P8 or P9, or P9 or P8 will not be one thing that basically pursuits me, so it is positive.
“There are guidelines that we all know we have set to work with and perhaps these guidelines weren’t revered, however once more, P8/P9, P9/P8, that is small. Going ahead, clearly if we’re combating for sexier positions, which I hope will probably be the case, then I hope that we’ll work otherwise, however on a day like that, truthfully, I do not actually thoughts.”
The weekend was a irritating one for Ferrari having seemed fast all through observe, however Hamilton – who topped FP2 – says his race consequence was a byproduct of a poor qualifying and there have been clear indicators of progress on his aspect of the storage.
“It is undoubtedly not the place we wish to be, clearly a disappointing consequence on the finish of the day, however I did go forwards from twelfth, which was optimistic. I had begin, and I feel my tempo was usually good, I imply I used to be flat out, I used to be undoubtedly a lot better, a lot happier within the automotive.
“It was tough to shut up on the vehicles forward, they had been very quick. Clearly qualifying is essential, and we missed out on that. Should you take a look at the Williams, the place they certified and completed there. However there’s a number of positives to take from it, and undoubtedly bits to attract from the weekend, which I will attempt to take into the subsequent.”
