Staying out, then spinning
Lewis Hamilton had a decision to make with ten laps left in São Paulo, and he made the wrong one. Running eighth when heavy rain arrived, he ignored Ferrari’s instruction to pit for intermediate tyres and stayed out on slicks, copying the Racing Bulls car of Liam Lawson just ahead of him.
Charles Leclerc, running just behind, came in. Mercedes also pulled George Russell from fifth, though the leaders had already passed the pit entry by the time the rain intensified. Hamilton spun on the next lap, then pitted at the end of it and dropped to ninth. Seventh had looked possible had he got past Lawson.
Speaking to Sky Italia after the race, Hamilton said the last update he got was that the rain would stay the same, and his grip felt good. “They didn’t say it’s raining more in the first half of the lap,” he said. “If I’d have known that I would have come in.”
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A weekend that never took off
Then he took the blame: “ultimately, that’s on me. Sorry for the team.” Not much was at stake in terms of points, but it added to a run of loose execution at Ferrari.
Hamilton and Leclerc were both hurt by grid penalties, starting 20th and 14th, and neither had the pace to live with race winner Lando Norris or Max Verstappen, who finished second. Hamilton climbed to ninth on lap one and was the first driver to switch from intermediates to slicks as the track dried, but could not turn either move into points.
The race came a week after a heated clash with Leclerc in Mexico that Hamilton felt cost him victory and Ferrari a one-two. He said on Saturday the two had squashed their issues. Back in the garage, he praised the mechanics who swapped out his engine and called it a really tough day and weekend for the whole team.
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