Sir Lewis Hamilton has apologised to Mercedes for the mistake he made at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix while trying to overtake lapped cars as he chased down Max Verstappen in the lead.
The seven-time World Champion had to move off the dry line as he attempted to overtake the Williams of George Russell, and he ended up in the gravel trap.
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Hamilton ultimately benefitted from the race being red-flagged, but he nevertheless had to pull off plenty of overtakes to recover back to P2.
Speaking after the race, Hamilton took responsibility for the incident and owned up to his mistake.
“I guess I was in a bit too much of a hurry to get by everyone,” Hamilton said.
“I was a bit unfortunate. There was only one dry line. I came into the inside and I could see it was wet.
“I was trying to stop but the thing wouldn’t stop and it sent me off.”
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Continuing, he said: “I’m really, really grateful that we got to get going again, and to get some points for the team is really important today.
“I didn’t know whether or not we’ll be able to overtake, because again offline was going to be wet.
“You don’t have time to dwell on it, so that’s what I did – got back into racing spirit. We still had some really good fun battles with all the guys.”
Hamilton’s Championship rival Max Verstappen won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix by a comfortable margin, but, as the Mercedes driver won the season-opener in Bahrain and set the fastest lap yesterday, he has maintained the lead in the Drivers’ Standings.
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