SMO K E D H A M

Mercedes ‘sorry’ to Lewis as blunder proves costly

MERCEDES issued a grovelling apology to Lewis Hamilton after two strategy gaffes allowed Red Bull rival Max Verstappen to win the French Grand Prix.

Verstappen passed the Brit on the penultimate lap to take a pulsating contest at Circuit Paul Ricard and extend his championship lead to 12 points.

Hamilton should have triumphed in the south of France. The seven-time world champion took control of the race after pole-sitter Verstappen ran off the track at the opening corner.

But the Dutchman was back in the lead on lap 20 when he stopped before Hamilton, using his fresher tyres to wipe out a 3.2-second deficit.

The duo then set a relentless pace making a second change of tyres inevitable.

Hamilton urged the Mercedes pit wall to make sure he performed the undercut the next time around.

But Mercedes were caught napping when

by PHIL DUNCAN

Verstappen came in for a second time and they had no choice but to leave Hamilton on track in the hope he could perform a miracle by winning on 34-lap old rubber.

But he could do nothing to prevent Verstappen coming from 18 seconds back with 20 laps to run to sail by at the chicane with fewer than five miles left.

“Lewis, this one is on us,” Mercedes chief strategist James Vowles told Hamilton after the chequered flag.

Both Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas said they told their team it might not be a one-stop race, but their warnings appeared to fall on deaf ears.

Indeed, Bottas, who lost third to Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in the closing stages, fumed over the radio: “Why the f*** did no one listen to me when I said it was going to be a two-stop race. F ****** hell.”

Hamilton tried to put a brave face on the defeat, saying: “It is not gut-wrenching.

“But I’m sure if we looked at it with hindsight, we could have stopped earlier, gone on to a two-stop strategy and it probably could have won the race.”

Verstappen’s triumph moved him on three wins apiece with Hamilton this season. He added: “When we made the call to do a two-stop strategy, it paid off.”