The war of words just won’t leave Lewis Hamilton alone or the young man just seems to thrive on the constant conflagration of words with peers (when does this guy get a break already?). Today’s qualifying session had a “moment” in which Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren slowed to allow for a gap to his teammate Jenson button on the final corner prior to starting his last qualifying lap.
The issue was that time was running out and the teams had left it too late to really have a comfortable margin. The same could be said of Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher who had left it even later than Hamilton to make their final run.
The issue escalated as Hamilton slowed and it caught Webber and Schumacher off guard as they both went around Hamilton. Messrs. Webber and Schumacher were running out of time as well and couldn’t wait for Hamilton to get his comfortable gap between his teammate.
“I didn’t want to pass him at all,” the Australian explained. “I didn’t want to get involved in any of that.
“But the team were saying ‘Come on, get on with it, we’re running out of time, you’re not going to be able to start the lap, you’ve got to push through the last chicane’.
“Out of nowhere, he just shot up the inside and nearly crashed with me, so I had to avoid him.
“And then I saw, I didn’t even see Michael as I gave Mark room, but he nearly crashed on me on the left, so it was quite dangerous.
“I had Webber in front because Hamilton slowed down. I don’t know what was in front of him, if he really had to slow down that much, but it was tight for all three of us so we all had to push somehow to make it through and do another lap.
“Not really, luckily nobody else – or at least Kobayashi – didn’t go out again to set another lap, because that would have meant I would have been shy by probably a second. Which was a bit stupid – at the last chicane everybody was driving so slow.
The only thing that could have made this to over-the-top story of the day would have been to have Felipe Mass involved in the incident as he’s been at the heart of last weeks war of words with Hamilton.
As it is, a racing incident but the teams all left it too late and that’s the reality. I think it’s hard to blame Lewis for trying to gap it perfectly and I can’t blame Webber and Schumacher who were behind Hamilton as they had even less time to get over the line. They had to make the move they did to even have a chance.
what’s your perspective of the situation?
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I think it is easy to justify Webber and Schumacher’moves, who were behind with less time than Hamilton to get over the line.
If the roles were inverted (Hamilton behind with dangerous moves to gain a place) I guess all the fans would blame Hamilton.
Hamilton seems to keep his head cool, after all if a crash had occurred, no doubt Hamilton would be the center of attacks because of his incident’s history this year. So to have success, Hamilton should work harder to avoid criticism.
Hamilton: they were being dangerous and I was just doing the right thing!!!
Schumacher: He pushed me a little wide but whatevs. I tried.
I can’t blame the situation on any of the drivers but I sure can see who is being a little piss bucket about an unfortunate situation. And people wonder why Hamilton gets the hate.
Maybe because I am what?
Sounds like a straight forward racing incident to me. Although that is some crappy luck for Hamilton my guess is he probably could have bettered his time.
Hamilton and Mclaren fell asleep, Lewis just apologized saying it’s his mistake. Case Closed.
3 people were involved in an unfortunate timing screwup by the heads of state. 1 person is bitching AND playing victim. 1 person shrugs it off and 1 person acts like he was under pressure to participate.
Would be much easier to have an opinion if the world feed showed WTF actually happened. Did BBC viewers see this or are we just taking all the drivers words for it?
The BBC showed the replay after the world feed ended.
The BBC should not be allowed to show F1. Their presenters are just not good (DC,EJ). Their anti-Hamilton bias is so obvious.
Oh brother…. compared to the beeb’s ‘anti-hamilton’ bias the ‘pro-hamilton’ bias is ineffable.
Schumi lost his right to complain about qualifying shenanigans when he parked his Ferrari at pit entrance in Monaco.
it didn’t sound like Schumacher was complaining.
What I wouldn’t give for Leigh Diffey to permanently replace Varsha.
After seeing the video It seems like another example of Lewis thinking his track positions is more important than everyone else’s. I think he assumes other drivers should adjust their track position to cater to his. I really think Lewis thinks in his mind ” what are these idiots doing, don’t they know who I am”.