F1 News
Hamilton on ignoring Mercedes orders: "an extra point was available"
Lewis Hamilton made a last-ditch attempt to try to get a point for fastest lap of the race, which Sebastian Vettel secured, after ignoring Mercedes instructions to not go for it.
Hamilton just missed out by two-hundredths of a second to Vettel after his team has said that they ‘won’t bother going’ for the bonus point to not risk losing the lead of the race or the car.
But the Brit ignored and kept pushing after Vettel had pitted for a fresh set of soft tyres.
“Of course I kept going,” Hamilton said (quoted by RaceFans).
“I just think you should never give up, you should never be complacent and think ‘it’s not possible’. An extra point was available.
“Naturally the guys can’t know how I feel in the car but I felt like I had a little bit left in the tyres and there was only one more lap and I was like ‘I want to go for it, man’.
“Even during the lap they were saying ‘don’t worry, he’s got new tyres, there’s no way you can beat a soft tyre’. I still, as crazy as a driver is, just thought maybe I could get there.”
Hamilton was optimistic though that Vettel didn’t put in the perfect lap to go fastest after putting on a fresh set of soft tyres.
“I didn’t realise I’d be so close," Hamilton added.
“There’s things I could have done to have made it happen. I don’t think he had a perfect lap. I don’t think he had full deployment or something like that but still, I think it’s a learning for us to continue to push.”
