Hamilton felt Vettel nearly caused “big collision” at Mexican GP start
Lewis Hamilton believes he and Sebastian Vettel were lucky to avoid a “big collision” at the sౠtart of Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix.
A good launch 🍸from third on the grid enabled Hamilton to gain on the front-row starting Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, but the Mercedes driver was squeezed out onto the grass by🅠 Vettel.
Hamilton lost momentum and found himself coming under attack from Red Bull's Max Verstappen, before the ꦐpair made slight contact and lost ground as they skipped Turn 2 to avoid💜 further drama.
Lewis Hamilton believes he and Sebastian Vettel were lucky to avoid a “big collision” at the start 💫of Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix.
A good launch from third on the grid enabled Hamilton to gain on the front-row starting Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, but the Mercedes driver was squeezed out onto the grass by 🉐Vettel.
Hamilton lost momentum and 🍬found himself coming under attack from Red Bull's Max Verstappen, before the pair made slight contact and lost ground as they skipped Turn 2 to avoid further dജrama.
Despite dropping back as low as fifth, Hamilton was able to perfect a one-stop strategy and claim a brilliant and unexpect💙ed victory 🦩for Mercedes in Mexico City, beating Vettel by 1.7s.
“I actually got a really good start,”ꦑ Hamilton explai☂ned.
“I was pulling🐬 up to Charles [Leclerc] and Seb is coming across, ꦺcoming across, coming across and I’m thinking ‘I’m on the white line, I don’t have anywhere further to go’.
“And he just keeps coming. So I had to avoid crashing with him𝓡, going on the grass. Av🍨oid his wheels as well, otherwise I could have caused a big collision for him.
“Then I was surrounded by a bunch of cars, I braked into Turn 1, and all of a sudden Max [Verstappeꦍn] is alongside me.
“If you’ve seen races before, I always leave Max a lot of space –𓄧 it’s the smartest thing you can do.
“But𒆙 there wasn’t a lot of space to give him space. I think he had an oversteer moment or something and then I got a massive hit from behind.
“Then I nearly took [Vettel] out. My back e෴nd came out and went straight on the grass. It was hair-raisin🌟g.”
Vettel claimedꦍ he could not see Hamilton in his mirrors, while Mercedes boss Toto Wolff praised the way his driver is able to get himself out of potentially race-ending accidents.
“I think this is clearly something that is a combination𝄹 of talent and learning and experiꦛence, that his racing is really great,” Wolff said.
“On a few occasions, he took himself out of what could have been a race-ending situa🎀tion, with Sebastian where he avoided contact miraculously [in Canada], then cont🐭act here with Seb on the straight.
“And then again just a few seconds later being side-by-side with Max through Turn 2 and 3. He seems to have this great ability to put the car inꦑ the right place.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often 𝔍reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the🎶 stories of the people who matter in the sport.
