McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh defends Lewis Hamilton’s un-lapping move – Formula 1
McLaren team Principal Martin Whitmarsh has come out in defence of his driver Lewis Hamilton and said that the Brit’s eagerness to un-lap himself from Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso at the recently concluded race at Hockenheim was justified.
Hamilton had a puncture at the start of the race which dropped him down in the order. The Brit made his second pit stop and rejoined the track behind Vettel.
Although Hamilton was dropped down the order, he was able to match the pace of the front runners and managed to un-lap himself from Vettel and Alonso. The situation though was a bit troubling Vettel who had to slow down because of the move.
After the race, Vettel said that the move was unnecessary, but Hamilton does not feel the same way.
“That was not nice of him. I don't see the point why he's trying to race us. If he wants to go fast he can drop back, find a gap and go fast there. But it's a bit stupid to disturb the leaders,” said the German.
Hamilton tried to un-lap himself from Alonso as well but the Spaniard managed to keep him behind him. Alonso said after the race that it helped him keep Vettel behind him a second.
“For me, it was a good position to have Hamilton between me and Sebastian because we were approaching the pit stop time and having Hamilton there meant that Hamilton was around a second behind me and Sebastian was another second or 1.5s behind Lewis. So
this 2.5s to Sebastian was very good, approaching the pit stop time so I tried to keep Lewis behind,” he added.
Whitmarsh also feels that Hamilton’s decision to try and un-lap himself was justified. He said that he was quicker than the rest so he overtook them.
Vettel finished second but dropped down to fifth as he was penalised for illegally overtaking Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button in effect making the Brit finish at second place.
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