Lewis Hamilton apologizes to his team

Lewis Hamilton believed in victory at Zandvoort this Sunday. At the wheel of a Mercedes at ease on the shores of the North Sea, the Briton made the offbeat strategy put in place by his team work perfectly. Starting on Medium tires on the starting grid, the Englishman inherited the lead of the race during the first wave of stops before switching to Hard tires.

Hamilton: “We haven’t won in so long”

Very comfortable on this rubber, the seven-time world champion quickly moved up to second position. The Safety Car caused by the immobilization of Valtteri Bottas at the end of the pit straight was going to turn everything upside down. Max Verstappen put on Soft tires, then George Russell asked to do the same, leaving his illustrious elder without protection against the Red Bull of the reigning world champion.

“He had the Soft tires anyway and they had the aspiration to them, judge Lewis Hamilton at the microphone of Canal+.. There was very little chance of me maintaining this position. Even if I had held on to him until the first corner, he would have overtaken me afterwards. We should have stopped for the Softs, probably, but it was really the Safety Car that put us in and the race was over for us at that point. »

With these tires, the Briton was unable to defend his position on the podium, successively letting George Russell slip away then Charles Leclerc. Lewis was even guilty of a sudden defensive movement on the straight in front of his teammate, a symbol of all his frustration. An anger, even, which he then expressed on the radio.

Comments for which Lewis Hamilton apologized once he got out of the car. “I am a fighter. We haven't won in so long, I wanted it with all my heart today, said Lewis Hamilton. It was a painful feeling. First of all, I want to apologize to my team for my words. I don't even know what I said, but I'm so proud of them. Our pit stops were incredible. The car was really good this weekend and the strategy worked well until the last moment. I don't know if we could fight for victory without this Safety Car, but we will have one this year. I am sure of it. »

🗨️ “I want to apologize to my team for my words”

The mea culpa of Lewis Hamilton who prefers to take the positive out of this #DutchGP at our microphone 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/lBJFghL50Y

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) September 4, 2022