Lewis Hamilton: It’s clear Ferrari are favouring Sebastian Vettel over Kimi Raikkonen

Lewis Hamilton says it is clear Ferrari have now chosen a number one driver after Sebastian Vettel jumped team-mate Kimi Räikkönen during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Räikkönen, who started the race from pole position, led the opening stint before his first stop, whilst Vettel was kept out for an additional five laps, allowing him to open a gap and rejoin the race in the lead.

Hamilton says that by giving Vettel a favourable strategy when he was in second is evidence that Ferrari have chosen to back the four-time champion over Räikkönen.

"It's clear to me that Ferrari have chosen their number one driver, so they're going to be pushing everything to make sure Sebastian will get the maximum on all of his weekends," said Hamilton.

RelatedPosts

How the Austrian GP cemented F1 2025 as a two-horse race

6 hours ago

Toto Wolff: Kimi Antonelli’s ‘unfortunate’ Austria F1 error ‘can happen to the greats’

7 hours ago

"With the strategy, it's very hard for the leading car to get jumped by the second car unless the team decide to favour the other car, so that's very clear."

Hamilton is now 25 points adrift of Vettel in the standings, but said he wouldn't be demanding 'number one' status at Mercedes.

"I haven't spoken to the team, and I don't really plan to," added Hamilton. "Valtteri's doing a great job, I don't currently feel that we have to favour one over the other."