Istanbul – Lewis Hamilton stomped into the Mercedes box in frustration, while Sebastian Vettel apologized to his crew via radio while still in the racing car. The two most highly decorated active Formula 1 drivers were not rewarded for their risk in the rain in Istanbul. While Vettel’s experiment with dry tires did not cost any championship points, Hamilton was angry after finishing fifth and now six points behind Max Verstappen in the championship fight – because of the decision of his Mercedes team to prevent him from driving through a single set of tires.
“The tires could have held up,” said Hamilton. “In retrospect, I should have stayed outside or come in much earlier. Ultimately, it’s frustrating. In third place it was a good feeling. Now it’s worse, but it could also have gotten worse. “
Valtteri Bottas wins the world championship race in Istanbul
At least Valtteri Bottas prevented greater damage with his tenth Formula 1 victory before Verstappen. Thanks to second place, the Red Bull star is still ahead of Hamilton in the world championship classification. Third was Sergio Perez.
“We are happy with this second place. It’s easy to make mistakes in these conditions, ”said Verstappen. Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko spoke of “the best we could get. We were a little afraid that Hamilton would drive through. But given the condition of his tires, the risk of bursting would have been very high. “
Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff went straight to the error analysis: “If we had got in much earlier, we could have achieved third place. We wanted that, but I also understand Lewis’ point of view in the car. “
Vettel also took risks in the fight for at least a few championship points: While all opponents were using intermediates, the Aston Martin driver had dry tires fitted after 40 of 58 laps. Vettel quickly had to find out: That doesn’t help. The Heppenheimer was passed on and finished 18th.
Bad day for Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher also had a moderate day. The 22-year-old’s Haas was initially filmed by Fernando Alonso (Alpine). Schumacher, who had conquered starting position 14 in qualifying, fell back to the bottom of the field and finished 19th. Nevertheless, he spoke of a “positive weekend”, the qualifying was mega. Alonso took the collision on his own.
It had rained again at the gates of Istanbul overnight, at the start the asphalt was wet and it was dripping. Hamilton passed Vettel quickly in poor visibility, but was stuck seven laps behind the AlphaTauri of the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda. The world champion, who only started from eleven due to an engine penalty, worked his way forward.
Lewis Hamilton is outvoted by his team
At the end of lap 36, Verstappen was the first top driver to get new intermediate tires – and came back on track ahead of Perez and Hamilton. Hamilton and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc stayed on their set of tires longer than anyone else – in the hope that the track would dry out sufficiently.
With ten laps to go, Leclerc gave up on his plan. Hamilton turned completely around: The 100-time Grand Prix winner wanted to cover the more than 309 km on a single set of tires: “I slide back and forth, but it still works.” Ultimately, the team overruled him. At least such a failure was prevented.