Sir Lewis Hamilton was left frustrated as he believes Mercedes had made the wrong pitstop call following a dramatic end to his well-managed comeback drive at the Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix.
With the rain pouring on Sunday, drivers were forced to use sets of intermediate tires throughout the Turkish GP. Hamilton started from P11 on the grid as per the penalties he had incurred due to engine changes.
The 7-time Formula 1 world champion made his way through the pack. While running in 3rd place behind Max Verstappen with 8 laps to go in the race, Hamilton was committed to finishing without making a single pitstop. However, the Mercedes pit wall pleaded for him to pit as they realized Lewis' pace was dropping off rather quickly.
Fuming with frustration, Hamilton expressed his desire to follow his gut after he fell to fifth place, and the brand new tires performed rather poorly on his final stint.
Via Matt Moldridge of Sky Sports:
“**** man why'd you give up that space?” blasted Hamilton to trusted engineer Pete Bonnington on team radio. “We shouldn't have come in. I told you.”
“I feel like I should have stayed out,” Hamilton told F1. “My gut feeling was to stay out, and I feel like that's what I should have done. So I'm frustrated in myself for not following my gut.”
Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, defended the team's decision to pit Hamilton as he insisted that the Englishman would have lost places to Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez regardless, and would have possibly risked not finishing the race altogether.
As someone who seeks to break Michael Schumacher's record for the most world drivers' championships in Formula 1 history, every point counts at this point in the season, and taking unnecessary risks is definitely not an option for Hamilton.
Follow Us
Subscribe