News
27th July 2014, 21:10
Lewis Hamilton said he was "very shocked" that Mercedes asked him to move aside and let team mate and title rival Nico Rosberg through at the Hungaroring.
The Briton had moved ahead of Rosberg, who started from pole, after the second round of pit stops, but the two drivers were on differing strategies: Hamilton had switched to the medium compound and was set to run until the finish, while Rosberg was on the softs and needed to stop again.
Mercedes asked Hamilton to move aside for Rosberg, but the Briton declined and after finishing the race in third, 0.5s ahead of the German, he explained why.
"I was in the same race as him - just because he had one more stop than me doesn't mean I wasn't in the same race as him," Hamilton said.
"And naturally if I'd have let him past, he would have had the opportunity to pull away and when he does pit, he's going to come back and overtake me, so I was very, very shocked that the team would ask me to do that, to be able to better his position.
"He didn't get close enough to overtake but I was never going to lift off and lose ground to Fernando [Alonso] or Daniel [Ricciardo] to enable him [Nico] to have a better race. So that was a bit strange."
Toto Wolff, Mercedes-Benz
More... (http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/7/16179.html)
The Briton had moved ahead of Rosberg, who started from pole, after the second round of pit stops, but the two drivers were on differing strategies: Hamilton had switched to the medium compound and was set to run until the finish, while Rosberg was on the softs and needed to stop again.
Mercedes asked Hamilton to move aside for Rosberg, but the Briton declined and after finishing the race in third, 0.5s ahead of the German, he explained why.
"I was in the same race as him - just because he had one more stop than me doesn't mean I wasn't in the same race as him," Hamilton said.
"And naturally if I'd have let him past, he would have had the opportunity to pull away and when he does pit, he's going to come back and overtake me, so I was very, very shocked that the team would ask me to do that, to be able to better his position.
"He didn't get close enough to overtake but I was never going to lift off and lose ground to Fernando [Alonso] or Daniel [Ricciardo] to enable him [Nico] to have a better race. So that was a bit strange."
Toto Wolff, Mercedes-Benz
More... (http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/7/16179.html)