The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Hamilton wins then takes time to criticise rival
Lewis Hamilton claimed his championship rival Sebastian Vettel was let off the hook at the French Grand Prix following his first-corner crash with Valtteri Bottas.
A dominant Hamilton ruled from start to finish on Formula One’s first return to France in a decade to claim his third win of the season, as he moved back ahead of his rival at the top of the standings.
“I am so happy for England,” Hamilton said on the Mercedes radio with his victory coming just two hours after Gareth Southgate’s side demolished Panama at the World Cup. “It is a beautiful Sunday.”
But Hamilton’s mood took a turn as he watched a replay of Vettel’s crash with Bottas on the 210mph charge to the opening bend.
Hamilton shook his head in the green room. “Jeez, he took him right out,” Hamilton said. “Oh, man, that’s crazy.”
Vettel was hit with a five-second penalty, but it had little effect on his comeback drive from 17th to fifth.
Vettel had to stop for a new front wing following the crash with Bottas, while the Mercedes driver suffered a puncture. Bottas had to limp back to the pits for new tyres. The floor of his Mercedes was damaged, too. He toiled home in seventh.
Hamilton, now 14 points ahead of Vettel, delayed his televised post-race media call for a handful of minutes after he said the lighting was too intense. When he emerged, he claimed Vettel’s penalty was too lenient.
A drive-through penalty would have cost the German 20 seconds. A stop-and-go penalty would have been closer to half a minute.
“For me, it is definitely disappointing because the team had a chance for a one-two,” Hamilton said.
“When someone destroys your race through their error, and they get a tap on the hand, are allowed to come back and finish ahead of the person they took out, it does not weigh up.
“Ultimately, Seb should not have not been able to finish ahead of Valtteri because he took him out of the race.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished as the runner-up to Hamilton, has courted criticism this season following a number of crashes.
Sitting to Hamilton’s right, he jovially said: “Next time you see Seb you should ask him to change his style. Honestly, it is not acceptable. That is what they said to me at the beginning of the season. They should do the same to him.”
After banging wheels with Hamilton in Azerbaijan, crashing out in Singapore, tangling with Hamilton and Verstappen at the start in Mexico, and running off the road at April’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, this was Vettel’s fifth costly mistake in 12 months.
Is he making too many errors to win a championship?
“We are all on the edge and fighting for world championships,” Hamilton said in defence of his rival.
Hamilton, armed with a new Mercedes engine, has been in emphatic form in France, and after topping both practice sessions, sticking his Mercedes on pole, and then nailing the start, his win never appeared in doubt.