Lewis Hamilton says he will apologise to Charles Leclerc after failing to execute a Ferrari team order to give a position back to his team-mate at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
On an underwhelming weekend for the Italian squad, Leclerc allowed Hamilton through into eighth place with seven laps remaining to give the seven-time world champion the opportunity to use his fresher tyres to chase down the cars in front.
The switch was made on the understanding that Hamilton would give the position back to Leclerc should he be unsuccessful in his attempts to advance, but the Brit failed to slow down sufficiently on the approach to the chequered flag and finished ahead of Leclerc.
Hamilton said: “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.
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Hamilton was disappointed following his eighth-placed finish at the Baku City Circuit
“And basically I did lift on the straight, and did actually brake, but he missed it by like four tenths.
“That was just a misjudgement by myself. I’ll apologise to Charles. At the end of the day that’s [only] eighth and ninth.”
Leclerc: Maybe rules were not respected by Hamilton
Leclerc insisted he was not overly bothered by the incident due to the insignificance of the difference between eighth and ninth place, but did question whether Hamilton had “respected” the team’s rules.
Leclerc told Sky Sports F1: “Honestly, for a P8 or a P9 it’s not going to be a big talking point. I don’t really mind.
“Obviously these are things we agree between us and the general rules of how we want to work whenever there is a swap.
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Highlights of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the Baku City Circuit
“It didn’t happen, and that’s ok. It’s not like I would have been a lot happier being P8, so I don’t mind.”
Speaking to the written media in Baku, Leclerc added: “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.”
‘Lewis had a misjudgement’
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur insisted switching the drivers was “the best option” for the team’s attempts to achieve the best possible result.
Hamilton closed up on a three-way battle for fifth between Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris, but ultimately was likely to need movement among the trio ahead of him to have a chance of making ground.
Had Lawson been passed by Tsunoda and Norris, Hamilton may have had a decent chance of passing the Racing Bulls driver, but the Red Bull and McLaren ahead of him both also had fresh tyres.
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Hamilton shakes his head in disbelief as Ferrari team-mate Leclerc knocks him out of Q2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Vasseur said: “I think 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 and Lawson.
“Charles had an issue with the [energy] recovery and we were not at the top with the engine.
“I think that was the best option for us to do this move.”
As for the failure to restore their positions, Vasseur accepted Hamilton’s explanation.
He added: “We asked to swap back and it looks like Lewis had a misjudgement on the position of the start/finish line.”
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