Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix were dashed during a standing restart, after he locked-up and went straight on at Turn 1.
The Mercedes driver looked set to move back into the lead of the Formula 1 Championship after title rival Max Verstappen crashed out with a tyre failure. That prompted a red flag and a restart.
Hamilton started from second, behind Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate, Sergio Perez. Despite a good start to get ahead of the Mexican, Hamilton locked-up and went straight on, taking to the Turn 1 run-off before rejoining at the back of the pack.
Hamilton apologised over team radio before mentioning the “magic”, referring to a button or switch Mercedes uses to warm its tyres and brakes more effectively during race starts.
“Did I leave the magic on? I could have sworn I turned that off,” the Briton said.
After the race, Hamilton explained that he had in fact turned it off, but knocked the switch, re-activating it, when he moved left to counter Perez’s defence at the restart, which moved the brake bias forwards, causing him to go off.
“I’m not entirely sure, but I hit some sort of switch that caused only the front brakes to work,” he told media after the race.
“There’s a button we have to help keep the front brakes up and, as Perez pulled over, I reacted and accidentally latched on the switch. It just locked up and I went straight on.”
Hamilton would go on to finish outside of the points, meaning Verstappen retains his slim four-point championship lead, whilst Red Bull extended their Constructors’ lead thanks to Perez’s win.
“It was a finger problem”. -Wolff
A funny way of saying “human error”. Notice how they never admit when Lewis makes mistakes?
I’m enjoying Mercedes proving me wrong by completely collapsing under (minimal) pressure, when they really should be cruising to another driver and constructor’s championship. Seeing Lewis buckle under pressure is nothing new, but seeing the entire Mercedes team crash and burn when only under pressure is really something else. They still have the best car, the problem is they no longer have the best team to keep them going which will define who wins this year.
When Hamilton slid off into the run-off area in a cloud of tyre-smoke it was bloody hilarious. Wolff attempting to gloss over the clanger was utterly risible.
“Lewis buckle under pressure is nothing new”
“They never admit when Lewis makes mistakes”
“They still have the best car”
Okay TROLL
It seems that this site, with its comments, is going downhill. Just nasty talk.