Hamilton's Baku apology meets Leclerc's 'disrespect' warning

17:57, 21 Sep

byNorberto Mujica

Lewis Hamilton's failure to comply with team orders in Azerbaijan faces backlash from teammate Charles Leclerc and Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Photo: Race Pictures

There are rules that we know we've got to work with. And today maybe those rules were not respected.

- Charles Leclerc.

"Honestly, for a P8 or a P9 it's not going to be a big talking point. I don't really mind," Leclerc told Sky Sports F1.

"Obviously these are things we agree between us and the general rules of how we want to work whenever there is a swap.

"It didn't happen, and that's ok. It's not like I would have been a lot happier being P8, so I don't mind."

However, the Monegasque driver did state that there are rules that are agreed upon internally within the team prior to a race, which, in this case were broken.

"I mean, there are rules that we know we've got to work with. And today maybe those rules were not respected.

"But, again, P8-P9, P9-P8, that's more going forward obviously, if we are fighting for sexier positions, which I hope it would be the case, then I hope that we will work in a different way."

Vasseur: "Lewis had a misjudgement"

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur defended the strategic call to swap positions, by stating it would have been the"best option" for the team to maximise their Sunday, given the fact Leclerc was experiencing technical issues in his Ferrari.

"I think the situation was clear for us, that Lewis had a tyre advantage," Vasseur said. "And we asked Charles to let him go to try to overtake Tsunoda and Lawson.

"Charles had an issue with the [energy] recovery and we were not at the top with the engine.

"I think that was the best option for us to do this move."

However, Hamilton was asked by the team to let Leclerc by when it became clear a position gain was not in the cards for the British driver.

Despite lifting his foot of the throttle and braking to let Leclerc by, Hamilton finished ahead of his teammate by 0.4s. A misjudgement, thinks Vasseur.

"We asked to swap back and it looks like Lewis had a misjudgement on the position of the start/finish line."

Hamilton "zoned in", will apologise to Leclerc

With Hamilton on fresher tyres Leclerc was asked by the Ferrari pitwall to let him by. The plan was to allow Hamilton to attack the trio of drivers ahead conformed by Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.

Nevertheless, in the last moments of the race, it was clear the DRS train ahead would not be broken and that Hamilton wasn't going to be able to overtake any of his rivals.

Ferrari then gave the Briton instructions to swap the places back to their previous order, a move which was left until the final meters of the race.

Afterwards Hamilton said he was "zoned in" on Norris, and as a result slowed down too late. He then acknowledged that the incident had been a misjudgement on his part, and stated he would apologise to Leclerc.