LEWIS ON THE WRONG TRACK

Mercedes apologise to Hamilton after mistakes

MERCEDES issued i d a grovelling apology to Lewis Hamilton — saying “this one’s on us” — after two strategy mistakes allowed Red Bull rival Max Verstappen to win the French Grand Prix.

Verstappen passed Hamilton 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 assumed control of the race after pole- sitter Verstappen ran off the track at the opening

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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.

Verstappen and Hamilton then set a relentless pace making a second change of tyres inevitable.

Frustrated to have fallen behind his rival, Hamilton urged the Mercedes pit wall to make sure he performed the undercut the next time around.

Choice

But Mercedes were caught napping when Red Bull blinked first.

Verstappen came in for a second time and Mercedes had no choice but to leave Hamilton on track in the hope he could perform a mira- cle by b winning i i on

34-lap- old rubber.

Hamilton drew on all his record-breaking brilliance to tee up a thrilling finale, but h e could do nothing to prevent

Verstappen coming from 18 seconds back with 20 laps to runtosailbyatthechicane with fewer than five miles left.

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

“Thank you for doing everything you could to recover that race. You drove incredibly well.”

Both Hamilton and teammate 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- t mate t Sergio S i 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.

“It is not gut-wrenching,” he said. “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.

Analysis

“That would have done the job but a two-stopper was not on the cards at all for us today, so we will do some analysis and try to figure out why.

“The tyre degradation was much bigger than anybody on my team thought it would be.”

Verstappen’s triumph moved him on three wins apiece with Hamilton. “When we made the call to do a two-stop strategy, it paid off,” the Dutchman said. “We had t o work hard for it but it was very rewarding. The whole race we were f ighting each other so it is going to be like this for the rest o f th e season.”

Lando Norris continued his fine campaign by driving to fifth from eighth on the grid with Daniel

Ricciardo sixth in the other McLaren.