Lewis Hamilton says he had “kind of an empty feeling” in the wake of the penalty Sebastian Vettel sustained during their battle at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton trailed Vettel throughout the 70-lap race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve but his Ferrari rival went wide through Turn 4 on lap 48, taking to the grass run-off.
Stewards deemed that Vettel re-joined the track in an unsafe manner and forced Hamilton to take evasive action, slapping the four-time champion with a time penalty.
Canadian GP: Drivers' Standings | Constructors' Standings | Race Result
Hamilton inherited the win, having crossed the line second, to extend his title advantage over Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to 29 points.
“Ultimately it is a kind of empty feeling today and it is kind of crazy as we are in this beautiful country and we had a great race between two teams which has ended with a negative,” he said.
“From what I remember I came through the corner and was quicker at that point so I was trying to apply pressure to Seb; one to try to get close enough and two to try to push him into an error.
“It isn’t too often that you can push a four-time World Champion into making it but it came so at the time I was like ‘okay, great this is my opportunity’ so I continued the corner as normal and came around and I was on the line then the gap closed.
“It looked like we were going to crash so I had to brake and come off the gas to avoid a collision.
“Fortunately we did avoid that but that was the one window as the gap opened up after I braked to avoid him.”
Hamilton said he kept pushing to try and pass Vettel in spite of the knowledge that remaining within five seconds was sufficient.
“Even when I heard there was a penalty I kept pushing because I thought maybe we could still have that race,” he said.
“It is such a hard time to follow as the temperatures are so high and it is the heaviest duty track for the cars as it is very physical for the cars and drivers. So I just tried to get as close as I could.”
