Lew lashes out at ‘dangerous’ Sirotkin move
LEWIS HAMILTON will start the first race of his championship parade from pole position after avoiding a sanction for a near-miss in qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
On virtually the identical piece of Interlagos track where he passed Timo Glock to sensationally win his maiden title a decade ago, there was further drama for Hamilton yesterday.
At first, it appeared as though the Mercedes star was at fault.
In attempting to jump out of Sergey Sirotkin’s way, he inadvertently drove into the Russian’s path with the pair only inches away from a 150mph shunt.
Sirotkin turned sharply to his left, narrowly avoiding Hamilton’s Silver Arrows, before running over the grass on the exit of Turn 11.
Given the speed at which Sirotkin approached Hamilton’s Mercedes, the initial evidence suggested the Williams driver was on a flying lap.
But both parties later confirmed that the rookie Russian was only preparing for a speedy run.
As such, Hamilton was not summoned to the stewards, with the five-time world champion instead pointing the finger at Sirotkin for reckless driving.
“He wasn’t on a quick lap so I don’t know what his thinking was,” said Hamilton. “It was quite a disrespectful move in the sense that it was dangerous. It was kind of strange and completely unnecessary.”
Hamilton pulled a lap out of nowhere to claim his
10th pole of the season when it was Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel who seemed to hold the advantage.
Vettel provisionally qualified second, just
0.093 seconds adrift of Hamilton.
But he was left facing a grid penalty for today’s race after he bizarrely lost his cool when he was called to the weighbridge in his Ferrari.
Keen to get back on track in the fight for pole, Vettel angrily signalled with the officials before he drove off at speed and broke the scales.
“They shouldn’t call us when the conditions are changing like that,” said the German.
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