Hamilton was frustrated late Sunday afternoon. An understatement. However, on the factual reading of his result, his fifth place gleaned from starting eleventh on the grid is an acceptable stopgap. Insatiable points hunter, the Briton did not seem satisfied with these 10 points collected after being relegated to the middle of the grid due to a penalty served by his team in Turkey for having changed part of his engine. A seemingly legitimate strategy given the ease of the Mercedes driver on the Istanbul track (he had taken pole the day before and won there last year) and the weather conditions.
But nothing went as planned. "
As I have always said, we win and we lose together,
" commented the seven-time world champion, several minutes after the first victory of the season for his future ex-teammate Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton, who saw his great rival Max Verstappen take away the lead in the championship, wanted more, after having sailed a short distance from the podium for a long time. But a strategic confrontation with his team disturbed him in this purpose. As he reached the end of the life of his intermediate tires with eight laps from the end, the centenary of victories had to go through the pit box. Against his will: “
I don't know if I could have kept my position if I had stayed on the track but I like to take risks, itis what I wanted to do.
"
" Leave me alone "
The risk in question was to stay on the track until the end, completing the 58 laps planned without stopping once at the pit.
Or rather to anticipate a drying out of the track, and thus to put on medium tires with a strategy of one stop, when the rest of the field would have been forced to stop a second time, after having already renewed its set of tires. intermediaries.
A strategy shared with Charles Leclerc, a time leader of the Grand Prix at the wheel of his Ferrari.
However, as evidenced by the chaotic passage in mediums of Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), forced to quickly return to green rubber after having skated in the four corners of Istanbul Park, this choice was not the right one.
Read alsoFormula 1: Lewis Hamilton, the greatest ... in numbers
Like Leclerc, Hamilton therefore returned to the pits, a dozen laps after refusing to do so. On lap 41, his now famous engineer Peter Bonnington, known as “Bono”, ordered him to return to the radio. "
Why?
», Retorts the Briton, convinced that he has the weapons to keep in respect«
the threat
»posed by Pierre Gasly behind him. Hamilton wants to stay in the heat of the moment, having battled unsuccessfully behind Sergio Perez's Red Bull, late braking and heroic defense on lap 35. The tone of voice of the Mercedes driver hardens when his favorite interlocutor asks him to return to the pits.
Faced with a management of tires that is no longer to be proven, the sultan of rubber won a tug of war with his race management. Until going through the
pit-stop
box
, constrained and forced. Hamilton emerges fifth and grabs the time on Leclerc, then 4th, disturbed by the rise in temperature of his new intermediaries. Before the balance of power is reversed, since it takes at least five turns for the rubber to have its full effect in terms of grip. Hamilton complained about the graining of his tires (loss of grip) and saw Gasly pounce on him three laps from the finish. What does not fail to remind him of his engineer. “
Leave me alone,
” Hamilton replied curtly before cutting off communications until the finish line.
The pressure has changed sides
A perceptible annoyance after a frustrating second half of the Grand Prix for the native of Stevenage, who will therefore have badly anticipated the rest of the race but also the tactics of his team.
The only shooting window, on lap 37, when the driver asked his team to
undercut
(anticipate a pit stop) on Sergio Perez, was unsuccessful once the Mexican's supersonic stop (2.5 seconds) was achieved. one turn later.
"
With all our data, we understood that we would have lost the same positions by staying on the track,
" said Andrew Shovlin, the engineer in charge of strategy at Mercedes.
Without a pit stop, there was a risk of losing even more at the finish.
We made this stop as a precaution so as not to be too greedy.
"At the microphone of
Canal +,
the boss Toto Wolff abounded:"
We would have lost the place to Perez and Leclerc but also to Gasly
".
Result, Red Bull offers a nice podium with Verstappen (2nd) and Perez (3rd) and remains afloat in the constructors' standings (36 points behind).
Above all, if he limited the damage by going from 11th to 5th, Hamilton managed a much less flamboyant comeback than his great rival Verstappen, who took 2nd place from the back of the grid in Sochi.
"
It's hard to swallow,
" said Hamilton hot, all the more annoyed when he learned that Esteban Ocon (10th) had been at the end of the GP without stopping. Tense, the Mercedes driver has been for several weeks as his conquest of an eighth record title is threatened by a Verstappen on which he strives to return the pressure. "Mad Max", with whom the passes are now regular, appears on his side more relaxed, as if the pressure had changed sides. "
No one is invulnerable
", he confided to
L'Equipe.
last Thursday.
These errors of judgment and this perceptible tension in the Briton, who rarely loses the pedals, summons the memory of his year 2016 concluded by a title of his ex-friend become hated teammate, Nico Rosberg.
Next season, cohabitation promises to be hot with his ambitious compatriot George Russell.
Before that, Hamilton has six races left to make up six points behind his rival.
His mind risks being put to the test.
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