04/09/2023
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he apologised to Oscar Piastri for the clash which cost the Australian a certain points finish.
Having already lost out to teammate Lando Norris following McLaren's decision to allow the Briton to undercut his teammate, Piastri was subsequently hit by Hamilton as they battled for eighth.
Having started the race on hards, following the pit stops, while the majority of the field was now on the white-banded rubber, the Mercedes driver was on mediums.
With his better pace, the seven-time world champion made a move on the McLaren at the second chicane, but misjudged it and hit the Australian's car, damaging its front wing in the process.
The resultant pit stop dropped Piastri to 14th, though he made his way up to eleventh by race end.
The stewards deemed that Hamilton had moved to the right in the braking zone and made contact with Piastri while the Australian was moving to the right away from him and was close to the side of the track. As a result the Briton was handed a 5s time penalty, nonetheless he finished in the points.
"I cleared Alonso immediately after the stop," explained Hamilton, "which opened things up and let me close them down, but the incident with Piastri was just unfortunate. I misjudged the gap that I had and it was totally my fault, and I went and apologised to him straight after.
"Every point and position that we are getting through these races are incredibly hard-fought," he admitted. "We started on the hard tyre today and it was nice to be offset but difficult at the beginning and not so easy to follow in the DRS train.
"I spent a lot of laps following the McLarens, so I knew that I had slightly more pace than them in the first stint, and hoped I could get them on the second one. There was a big gap to catch after the stop, and I was worried my tyres would go off when I caught them, but fortunately theirs did the same."
"He apologised, and the stewards gave out a penalty, so I can't ask for anything other than that," said Piastri. "He just moved a bit too far to the right. It's very easy to do in that corner, it's very narrow.
"As I say, he came and apologised, so I don't think there's much more to it than that."