Sport
Lewis Hamilton shocked by Mercedes instructions to allow team-mate Rosberg to pass him
Lewis Hamilton toasts to his winning the British Grand Prix, Sunday July 6, 2014. PHOTO/ Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
Lewis Hamilton said he was “very, very shocked” to be asked by his Mercedes team to move over and allow team mate and title rival Nico Rosberg to pass him during Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
The incident, one of at least two in which Mercedes tried to persuade Hamilton to help Rosberg, came after 47 laps of a 70-laps race won by Australian Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull.
The two Mercedes drivers, who finished third and fourth, were on different strategies and Rosberg, on a three-stop plan, was using faster soft tyres at the time and had a further pit stop to make. “Obviously I am aware that I was in the same race as him, just because he had one more stop than me does not mean I am not in same race,” said Hamilton afterwards.
“If I let him pass, then he could pull away and come back at me later. “I was very, very shocked that the team would ask me to do that. He didn’t get close enough to overtake, I was not going to lift off and lose ground to Fernando Alonso or Daniel Ricciardo, so it was a bit strange.”
Hamilton had started from the pit lane and, after brushing the barriers at Turn Two of the opening lap made full use of his pure pace and two Safety Car interventions on a drying track to fight his way through the field. He finished third behind two-time champion Spaniard Alonso of Ferrari. Rosberg came fourth.
Asked “not to hold him up” on lap 47, and reminded of the message on lap 52, Hamilton replied: “I’ll let him through if he gets closer?. I’m not slowing down for Nico.” In turn, Rosberg asked via radio: “Why is he not letting me through?” In response he was told: “He’s had the message.”
This situation persisted for eight laps before Rosberg pitted for new soft tyres and a final charge.
