The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was won by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, his first race victory of the year.
Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton described rival Sebastian Vettel's driving in Baku as "disgusting" and "disrespectful" as the German extended his lead in the drivers' championship over the Brit.
During one of those times when the safety auto was just about to leave the race track, Hamilton appeared not to accelerate out of Turn 15, the final corner, and Vettel hit him up the back, damaging the Ferrari's front wing and part of the Mercedes' floor.
That was enough to see Vettel finish one place ahead of Hamilton in fifth, after the Mercedes racer lost his chances of victory when he was forced to pit for a replacement headrest.
That brought out yet another safety vehicle and eventually a red flag to stop the race, so that marshals could clean all the debris off of the circuit.
Then on lap 34 race control slapped Vettel with a 10-second stop-go penalty for "dangerous driving" in the incident with Hamilton. Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas recovered from last place after a first-lap collision with Kimi Raikkonen to pip Williams driver Lance Stroll on the line to take second.
Lewis Hamilton has said he does not want to speak to Sebastian Vettel about their incident under the Safety Car in Baku.
TN concerned over 'attacks' by SL Navy on fishermen
A few days back, five fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were arrested by the Lankan authorities, were lodged in Sri Lankan jail.
"For him to pretty much get away with driving into another driver is a disgrace", Hamilton said.
"I showed him I wasn't happy".
The chaotic race and results actually leaves Vettel with a 14 point lead over Hamilton, with Bottas now 28 points behind Hamilton.
"I had made an unplanned pit-stop at the beginning after a few laps we had some debris in the brakes, so I had to stop and clean it and well fell to 17th". "I got hit at Turn 2 and there was quite a lot of damage on the auto already on the left-hand side". Imagine all the kids watching today and seeing that from a four times world champion. In the end we're racing as men. "I might turn into something else".
"I can't really believe it", said Ricciardo. We're grown ups and people expect us to race and use our elbows, that's what people want.
"Vettel is a decent guy", Mercedes' non-executive chairman told reporters after the race. "It's risky driving and to get a 10-seconds penalty for that..." I will talk with him when [the media] are not here. Vettel felt Hamilton had slowed down on objective and remonstrated his anger by pulling alongside the Brit and ramming into his vehicle. If one of us gets a penalty, we both do. "Vettel literally came alongside me and hit me", the Briton said. Vettel was upset after he hit Lewis up the back, but this was also his fault not Lewis's. "Maybe we've seen the limit of that respect today". I just had fun.
Comments