Sir Lewis Hamilton has apologised to Charles Leclerc after he failed to let his Ferrari teammate overtake him on the last lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
After starting the weekend so optimistically, yet again Hamilton and Ferrari endured a nightmare race, with the seven-time champion crossing the line in eighth-place, far behind victor Max Verstappen.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri shockingly crashed out on the opening lap, but title rival and teammate Lando Norris failed to take advantage, only finishing seventh.
More embarrassingly for Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, the driver he replaced at Ferrari, came third, achieving a remarkable podium for Williams, while the Brit is still waiting for his first since joining the Scuderia.
During the race, with their drivers on different strategies, Ferrari ordered Leclerc to let Hamilton, on quicker tyres, past so he could attack Norris ahead.
The 40-year-old stuck to the McLaren’s rear wing in the closing stages, but simply could not overtake and on the last lap was asked to give eighth-place back to Leclerc who was a couple of seconds behind.
But while onboard footage confirms Hamilton did slow down as he approached the chequered flag, it was too little too late and they finished without swapping positions.
There was confusion and criticism over the incident and Hamilton later admitted he was at fault, saying: ‘Firstly… obviously I was quicker [in that moment of the race] but Charles was gracious to let me by.
‘At the end I got the message really late on, and I was like zoned in on the car in front of me, even though there was like 0.0001% chance of passing, I was still hopeful maybe.
‘And basically I did lift on the straight, and did actually brake, but he missed it by like four tenths. That was just a misjudgment by myself.
‘I’ll apologise to Charles. At the end of the day that’s [only] eighth and ninth.’
Leclerc suggested that Hamilton had ‘disrespected’ him and the team by ignoring the order but also said he cared little in the end given how low in the points they were.
‘I really don’t care. For an eighth place, I don’t think that this should be the talking point,’ the Monegasque said.
‘Unfortunately, we have been very slow all weekend, and that’s what we should focus on. P8 and P9, or P9 and P8, is not something that really interests me. It’s fine.
‘I mean, there are rules that we know we’ve got to work with. And today maybe those rules were not respected.
‘But, again, P8-P9, P9-P8, that’s more going forward obviously, if we are fighting for sexier positions, which I hope it would be the case, then I hope that we will work in a different way. But on a day like that, honestly, I don’t really mind.’
Hamilton was told by reporters that Leclerc didn’t care and replied: ‘Yeah, but [still] that won’t happen again.’
More to follow…
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