“For both Mercedes to be out after one lap is unacceptable”.
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The German passed Hamilton around the outside of turn one and the Briton was then squeezed on to the grass as he tried to regain the lead.His auto skewed sideways and smashed into Rosberg’s, with both drivers ending up in the gravel and the safety vehicle deployed. “Then coming out of Turn 3 I noticed I was down on engine power, which in hindsight was because I was in the incorrect mode, because I saw Lewis closing in”, the 2016 Drivers’ championship leader said, as quoted by ESPN F1.
Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff insists Lewis Hamilton’s decision to go for the gap was “fair enough” and what he “should have done” in that situation, describing the resultant crash as “unfortunate”. It was also Verstappen’s first race for the Red Bull team after he was drafted in from the Toro Rosso team, while Russian driver Daniil Kvyat was demoted.
Hamilton and Rosberg arrived back in the paddock, both still with their crash helmets on, before heading straight to the Mercedes’ debrief truck. “At that point, it was my race to win”, the German said.
Like Hamilton, Rosberg did not want to talk about where the blame lay for the clash: “I don’t want to comment on such things because if I answer that, then it is not good”.
After hearing about Lauda’s comments, Rosberg said “he is an expert”.
“I’m confident going there, yeah”.
“I can’t ever remember seeing a debut performance like that”, gushed Red Bull team principal Christian Horners, with the energy drink brand’s billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz also in attendance. Desperation. That’s not the way to win, not consistently.
That is the opinion of the man who knows him best, his father Jos, a former F1 driver who watched in awe on Sunday as his 18-year-old son, the first Dutchman to do so, claimed his record-breaking victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.
“When I came to a stop in the gravel trap, all I could think about was how gutted I was for the team, that’s where I feel the pain”, Hamilton said. It is very, very tough as it was my race to win. “That was the most gutting thing when I stopped, just thinking about all these things that worked so hard in this team to give me an opportunity to race today”.
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He said Mercedes had maintained their policy of allowing their drivers to race each other following their most notable previous accident at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix, which ended in acrimonious exchanges.
