Unhappy Hamilton points finger at Ferrari’s ‘interesting tactics’

There had already been Ferrari vs Mercedes trouble in Austria a week ago, so when Kimi Raikkonen hit Lewis Hamilton at the start of the British grand prix, tempers flared.

“So, having a bad start, he immediately lost two positions”.

Bottas was unable to fend off Vettel for the win and later lost positions to Hamilton and Raikkonen as his tyres degraded.

His auto wasn’t too damaged to take him out of the race but the four-time world champion is now up against it to get on the podium.

By the end of lap three, Hamilton was 14th.

Formula One Managing Director of Motorsports Ross Brawn and Lewis Hamilton have launched the first-ever crowd-sourcing competition in a global sport.

“It felt good on the laps to the grid so I took some [padding] off”, said Vettel.

Sebastian Vettel was hailed for “fighting like a lion” after overcoming the pain to win the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s charge up the field proved that he is a brilliant driver, but also highlighted the difference between the engines in F1.

“I tried everything to not give up the lead, but there was nothing I could do at that point to defend against the others on the fresher tyres”. Ferrari have got a little bit fortunate in the last couple of races so I hope that we get a few more positive races.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel hit Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the first corner of the French Grand Prix, forcing both to return to the pits to fix damage and fight from the back.

Bottas would assume the lead from Vettel, with Hamilton now third.

Hamilton, 33, said on his Instagram account: “Thank you for loving me for being with all my flaws”.

“He saw it as somebody torpedoed me off the race track”.

“But, I mean. I want to give them a message – it’s been a attractive battle, a battle that I think the audience appreciated.

Interesting tactics I would say from their side, but we’ll do what we can to fight them”.

“It is going to be a long and hot race, a tough battle, but I’m looking forward to it”.

Whilst it looked like Bottas would remain behind Vettel for the duration of the race, a surprise safety auto threw teams a strategy curveball.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner was of the same opinion.

He told Autosport: “Lewis did an incredible job, no question about it. But we will look at it now and try to fight and score as many points as possible”, Toto Wolff added. “We have seen the very best of both title rivals this weekend”.

“It looked very tight at the front on Friday and so it proved in qualifying: it needed a very good lap from Lewis to put the auto on pole and, save for an error in the final corners, Valtteri would have been just behind”.

Hi, Bob Aldons, The Car Guy, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport team report from Silverstone after the 2018 British Grand Prix.