Breaking news
Formula 1 British GP
Hamilton says he chose not to block Bottas in early duel
Lewis Hamilton says he decided against blocking his Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Valtteri Bottas while the pair were battling in the early laps at Silverstone, as it would've been "not the right thing to do".
Adam Cooper
Edited: Jul 15, 2019, 1:40 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Hamilton managed to squeeze past race leader Bottas at Brooklands on the fourth lap, but Bottas then surged back past heading into Copse.
Hamilton said had he been fighting a driver from a different team, he would have taken more risks.
“It’s no secret that Valtteri wants to beat me and I want to beat him,” said Hamilton. “And that fighting spirit is stronger than anything, individually for all of us. I think it’s so vital though, to have a respect.
“I know how hard is it to get a pole here. He did a fantastic job [in qualifying], and I know how hard it is to wake up and deliver every weekend, as do these other drivers, so the respect is there between us. I think we want to race wheel-to-wheel and tough. When you’re racing with a teammate, it’s on a different level.
“If I were racing a Ferrari, you take more risks. Still respectful, but you can lean on them a bit more but as team mates, we sit down at the beginning of the race, we talk about Turn 1 and how we’re going to respect each other, make sure we don’t collide. And even when I overtook him and he was coming back, I could have swept across the front and blocked him – but that’s not the right thing to do.
“Ultimately it enabled him to get back past – but that’s racing. It was really fair, and it was great.”
More from the British GP:
- Mercedes wary of 'unconscious favouritism' via split strategies
- Bottas rues "mistake" of ruling out one-stop strategy
- Why Bottas was always doomed to lose to Hamilton
Hamilton said his aggressive early charge came as a surprise to Bottas, who was expecting him to be preserving his tyres.
“Today I was supposed to start the race and save the tyres, and today I went flat out from the beginning, which was definitely not expected from everyone. Valtteri definitely didn’t expect it. The long runs, everyone else’s tyres were degrading massively, and I had the best long run on Friday of everyone.
“I’m sure everyone would have seen my data and been looking at how I saved the tyre, and tried to do the same, and I just did the opposite. I just went for it and risked it all basically trying to get past. We had a great, great battle, which was awesome. I hope we get to have more like that.”
Hamilton insisted that the safety car didn’t give him the victory, as his one-stop strategy would have played out in his favour
“I was going to do a one-stop, and he was on a two, so the safety car wouldn’t have made any difference. When he pitted on lap 16, I think it was, my plan was to offset as much as I could. I think I went four laps or something, and I probably could have done another lap or two.
“And at the time he was not catching me. He should have been catching me, but he wasn’t catching me, and I was keeping the gap generally the same.
“He came out of the pits seven tenths inside my window - and then it came to one [second], then one and a half, but it stayed around one and a half to two. If I’d done another lap it would have maybe got to two and half, and I would have come out on my fresh hards.
“And I could have just sat behind him if I wanted to, and he then he would have had to pit. So I would still have had that 21-second gap. So it didn’t really make a difference. Even though I was behind him I would have of course tried to overtake him, but in hindsight I didn’t need to.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Steiner: Grosjean/Magnussen clash "not acceptable"
Next article Verstappen: Leclerc duel suggests he's "still sore" about Austria
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
More from
Valtteri Bottas
Cadillac’s F1 brakes are still a problem: ‘I had to lift and coast on lap two’
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Cadillac’s F1 brakes are still a problem: ‘I had to lift and coast on lap two’
Valtteri Bottas completes three-day jungle ride to Singapore GP: "Your mind starts to play games at night"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Valtteri Bottas completes three-day jungle ride to Singapore GP: "Your mind starts to play games at night"
You Ask The Questions: Valtteri Bottas
Formula 1
Canadian GP
You Ask The Questions: Valtteri Bottas
More from
Mercedes
‘I’ll put a pillow under his butt’ – How Toto Wolff wants to solve Kimi Antonelli’s track limits problem
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
‘I’ll put a pillow under his butt’ – How Toto Wolff wants to solve Kimi Antonelli’s track limits problem
George Russell calls Red Bull "the team to beat" in F1, but Kimi Antonelli adds a key caveat
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
George Russell calls Red Bull "the team to beat" in F1, but Kimi Antonelli adds a key caveat
Latest news
Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
1 h
Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
5 h
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 6 h
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
7 h
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe