Hartley: Criticism is easy

Brendon Hartley had a solid lead at Silverstone at the wheel of the Porsche 919 Hybrid n°1 until he collided with Michael Wainwright's Gulf Racing 911 RSR coming out of a corner, forcing him to retire.

“It’s very disappointing. Mark Webber did an extraordinary job positioning the car at the front of the race. The car was fantastic”, explained the reigning world champion.

The New Zealander was not penalized for his maneuver, the stewards rightly believing that the collision was a racing event. The Porsche driver was nevertheless the subject of criticism.

“Moving through traffic with a difference of more than 50 km/h is never easy and it’s very easy to point the finger to criticize. It is normal for a prototype to pass on the outside of turn 2 because the normal trajectory is in the middle of the track in order to prepare for braking for the very tight right turn that follows., defended Brendon Hartley.

The Porsche driver nevertheless takes his responsibilities. “It’s my job as an LMP1 driver to safely overtake the car in front of me and I didn’t do that. It is obviously up to the car in front to choose its line. This all happens very quickly and I wish it had happened differently. I will learn from this mistake”, added the New Zealander.

Discover the analysis of the 6 Hours of Silverstone carried out by our special correspondents in AUTO issue 2059hebdo, available now in digital version on all platforms, and on newsstands from Wednesday.