Lewis Hamilton has put the tussle between himself and his team mate, Jenson Button, down to ‘unclear communication’ after being told to save fuel.
On lap 41, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel came together, relegating Webber from P1 to P3, whilst Vettel had to retire with a rear puncture and severe suspension damage.
Hamilton and Button came dangerously close to re-enacting the situation when they battled into turn twelve. Button managed to get past Hamilton, before the ’08 world champion put a move on the ’09 champion to regain his lead into turn one.
“The communication wasn’t clear for me,” confirmed Hamilton. “When they suggested ‘save this much fuel’ it was not easy unless I went ridiculously slowly. I tried to reach that target and in doing so Jenson all of a sudden appeared from nowhere.”
The McLaren driver didn’t realise how much he had to slow, as both drivers were told to conserve fuel, as confirmed by Button. It seems Button didn’t slow as much as Lewis, giving him a speed advantage, allowing him to catch his team mate.
“We were both told to conserve fuel – although I’d already been conserving fuel for about 30 laps at that point actually – and we never imagined the pace of the race would be so fast,” said Button.
Despite looking confused at the end of the race, Hamilton admits it was a great battle.
“I had a great battle with him, and was happy to get past because it was quite a surprise,” he said. “We’re allowed to race out there, but we have to be sensible. At the end of the day we’re a team: we both want to win the constructors’ title and we both want to win the drivers’ title. But we’re not stupid. I wouldn’t do anything dangerous to touch Jenson – and vice versa – and that’s the great thing about racing each other. “
