Lewis Hamilton says he’ll apologize to Charles Leclerc for not giving his teammate a place on the finish of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Ferrari break up the technique with two automobiles on Sunday, with Hamilton beginning with a tough compound from the twelfth and beginning Leclerc in media from the tenth. That meant that Hamilton was making medium tires sooner late within the race, and when he caught Leclerc he was caught behind a line of automobiles, together with Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris – Ferrari imposed a group order on Hamilton to attempt to discover a approach.
When Hamilton didn’t achieve this, directions got to swap positions once more on the finish stage, however he says he nonetheless could not make the transfer proper as Leclair nonetheless crossed the road earlier than he overtook him, regardless of the seven-time world champions slowing down considerably in pit straights.
“I used to be clearly quick, however Charles was sleek to let go of me,” Hamilton mentioned. “On the finish, I received the message actually late with that, and it appeared like I used to be being zoned to the automobile in entrance of me.
“Principally I lifted it up on a straight and truly placed on the brakes, however he missed it like 1 / 4, in order that was a misunderstanding from myself, so I am going to apologise to Charles.
“We by no means talked about it earlier than as a result of we have been by no means in that place.”
Leclerc himself downplayed the incident, however says that if the 2 drivers have been preventing for a extra necessary level it is extra problematic.
“I believe that was very clear, however I do not thoughts the final place eighth,” Leclerc mentioned. “I do not assume this ought to be a scorching subject. Sadly, we’re very late all through the weekend and that is the place we must always focus. It is effective as P8 or P9, or P9 or P8 just isn’t one thing that is actually fascinating.
“There are guidelines that we all know we’ve to work collectively, and maybe these guidelines weren’t revered, however once more, P8/P9, P9/P8 are small. Clearly, we hope that is the case.
The weekend was irritating to see Ferrari showing quick all through apply, however Hamilton, who has damaged by way of FP2, says his racial consequence was a by-product of poor {qualifications} and there have been apparent indicators of progress on his facet of the storage.
“That is positively not the place we wish to be. It is clearly a disappointing outcome on the finish of the day, however I moved ahead from the twelfth. It was constructive. I received off to a great begin. I believe my tempo was usually good.
“It was troublesome to shut the automobile forward. They’re very quick. Clearly it is essential to qualify, and we missed it. In the event that they see Williams who completed qualifying there, there’s quite a lot of constructive issues to take from that, and I am going to positively draw from the weekend.
