Lewis Hamilton says he will apologize for Charles Leclerc for not returning his teammate at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Ferrari split strategies with his two cars on Sunday, where Hamilton starts on the hard compound of 12th and Leclerc on the medium from the 10th. That meant in the second half of the race, Hamilton was on the faster medium -sized band, and when he caught Lecllc – who was stuck on the back of a train of cars, including Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris – Ferrari imposed ahead of the people to find Hamilton a way a way to find a way a way to have a way a way a way a way.
When Hamilton did not do this, the instruction in the final phase was given to exchange position again, but despite the seven -time world champion that immediately delayed on the well, he says that he did not correct the movement correctly, because he still exceeded the line before Leclerc took him.
“Of course I was faster, but Charles was merciful to pass me by,” said Hamilton. “At the end I got the message really late, and I was zoned on the car in front of me, although there was a chance of 0.001 percent to pass, I might still be hopeful.
“In short, I lifted up straight and actually braked, but he missed it with four tenths, so it was just a wrong estimate of myself. So I will apologize for Charles, because it is eighth and ninth at the end of the day, but it will no longer happen.
“There was never a thought that we would be in that position, so we have never talked about it before.”
Leclerc has been in trusting the incident itself, but says it would be more problematic if the two drivers had fought for more important points.
“I think it was very clear, but I really don’t care about an eighth place at the end,” said Leclerc. “I don’t think this should be the conversation point. Unfortunately we have been very slow the entire weekend and we have to concentrate on that. P8 or P9, or P9 or P8 is not something that really interests me, so it’s fine.
“There are rules that we know we have to work and maybe those rules are not respected, but again, P8/P9, P9/P8, that is small. In the future, if we fight for sexiere positions, which I hope will be the case, then I hope we will work in a different way, but one day, I really don’t mind.”
The weekend was a frustrating for Ferrari who seemed to have looked quickly during training, but Hamilton – who was at the top of FP2 – says that his racer result was a by -product of poor qualification and there were clear signs of progress on his side of the garage.
“It is absolutely not where we want to be, of course a disappointing result at the end of the day, but I went further from the 12th, which was positive. I had a good start, and I think my pace was generally good, I mean I was completely out, I was absolutely better, much happier in the car.
“It was difficult to close the cars in front of them, they were very fast. It is clear that qualification is very important, and we missed that. If you look at the Williams, where they qualified and are ready. But there are many positives to take from it, and certainly bits to pull out of the weekend, which I will try and take the next.”
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