Hamilton got team instructions to stay away from Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton had a rather disappointing weekend in Canada, but Mercedes strategist James Vowles has come out to say that Hamilton received instructions to not get closer to Max Verstappen.

Hamilton was the clear favourite to win the race in Montréal heading into the weekend, but the Brit couldn't muster up anything more than a P5 finish on Sunday. He could've broken a record if he won the race by winning it for the seventh time, but he didn't even get close this year.

While teammate Valtteri Bottas comfortably drove to second place, Hamilton got stuck behind Max Verstappen during a chunk of the race. James Vowles explained that Hamilton got instructed not to get too close.

"He couldn't get within two seconds of Verstappen," Vowles explained on the Mercedes website.

"That's because we quickly got a message that he had problems with the cooling.

"We had to make sure that there was enough clean air in the radiators, and that can only happen when you're not too close behind an opponent."

Actually avoiding to get closer to someone in front of you, that's a bit rich.