Sebastian Vettel took second place in the 2016 European Grand Prix in Baku this weekend, yet the German was not massively enthused by the result, having finished seventeen seconds behind race victor Nico Rosberg, with the Scuderia Ferrari looking well off the pace and performance of the German’s Mercedes AMG PETRONAS.
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After two successive wins had lifted him back into contention for a fourth title, Hamilton slipped back to 24 points behind Rosberg whose return to form brought him a 19th career victory.
Hamilton started Formula One’s first race in Azerbaijan from 10th after he crashed out in qualifying. Unfortunately, Hamilton was unable to fix it from inside the auto, which meant that he had to consolidate fifth place, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen having overtaken both Perez and Hamilton during their pit stops, rather than pushing ahead.
It hampered his attempts to overtake Force India’s Sergio Perez, having battled from 10th on the grid to fifth, and allowed victor Nico Rosberg to extend his lead in the drivers’ standings to 24 points.
He fixed the problem but finished fifth in a race billed as the European Grand Prix. Initially setting a blistering lap time early into qualifying, he then went on to win the race with a comfortable lead over the pack that followed.
Hamilton: “I might not finish this race as I’m going to try and change everything”.
“Can I make suggestions and you say if it’s OK or not?”, replied Hamilton.
“We had a configuration setting problem, an electronic setting problem but with engine modes, which occurred on both cars”, Wolff said. Bottas finished sixth ahead of the two Red Bulls of Riccardo and Verstappen, while Hulkenberg and Massa finished ninth and tenth respectively in the second Force India and Williams.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was second, with Sergio Perez rounding off the podium trio. The stewards investigated the incident and soon slapped Raikkonen with his five-second time penalty.
Rosberg dominated the Inaugural race at Baku City Circuit.
“Today has obviously been a great job for us”, said Vettel.
“Lewis, because he didn’t have that right path, it took him a while to figure it out – 12 laps – and this is what affected his race”.
Hamilton: “I don’t know what you mean”.
After the race, Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda revealed Rosberg also had the same issue for a short while, and that the German had worked out which switches needed turning to get things back to full speed faster than Hamilton did.
Mercedes said to him: “There is nothing you are doing wrong, just a setting that is incorrect”.
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“Unfortunately, under the new radio restrictions introduced for this year, the team is unable to tell the driver which mode to use – or not to use, in this case”.
