Mixing
Lewis Hamilton blasts ‘interesting tactics’ from Ferrari after first lap collision ruins Silverstone record attempt
8th July 2018,
==
LEWIS HAMILTON was left furious after his British Grand Prix dream was speared by reckless Kimi Raikkonen — leaving the Brit blasting Ferrari's "interesting tactics".
Hamilton was punted out at the third corner on the first lap dropping him to all-but last place before fighting back to finish second behind Sebastian Vettel.
It was almost a carbon-copy of the French GP when Vettel drove into Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Emotional Hamilton, who was going in search of a record sixth win at Silverstone, said: "This is the greatest race of the year and greatest crowd and I am so sorry I did not win. I will take it on the chin and I will not give up.
"It was interesting tactics, I would say, from their [Ferrari] side but we will do what we can to fight them.
"What I'd say is there's now two races that the Ferraris have taken out one of the Mercedes.
"They got a five second penalty [in France] and then a 10 second [at Silverstone] penalty. It doesn't appear to feel right.
"It spoils the race and it's a lot of points Valtteri and I have lost. We've got to work hard as a team to make sure we're fully ahead of those cars."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also questioned whether Ferrari's drivers were now targeting his at the start of races.
He added: "It was unfortunate, it is the second time we got taken out, a lot of construction points.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LIVE All the latest action, news, goals and gossip from the World Cup
"To word it in James Allison's [Merc's technical director] words, 'do you think it is deliberate or incompetence?' And that is where it leaves us with a judgement.
"I am not happy. We had a difficult weekend, qualifying on pole and then getting taken out on lap one, it puts you on the back foot."
Vettel, who now leads the championship by eight points, hit back at Hamilton's comments labelling them "silly" and "unnecessary".
He added: "Things can happen, but I think it's quite silly to think that anything that happened was deliberate.
"At least I would struggle to be that precise in order to take someone out. In France I lost my wing so I screwed my own race. I find it a bit unnecessary to even go there."
Raikkonen told TV cameras that the first lap accident was his fault, saying it was "my bad".
Yet somewhat tellingly he never offered the Brit an apology to his face in the post-race green room.
And their Ferrari team appeared to stir the pot even more with a post-race Tweet — writing the phrase "a hammer blow" — a reference to Hamilton's "Hammertime" catchphrase — under a picture of their drivers celebrating on the podium.
LEWIS HAMILTON was left furious after his British Grand Prix dream was speared by reckless Kimi Raikkonen — leaving the Brit blasting Ferrari's "interesting tactics".
==
Comments
Post a Comment