Hamilton shrugs after Perez incident: 'As Senna always said...'
F1 News
Lewis Hamilton was found guilty by the stewards for causing a collision with Sergio Perez in the Belgian sprint race. The Mercedes driver was given a five-second time penalty and two penalty points on his licence, but he himself dismisses it as a racing incident.
"It was a racing incident I think, we tried to go on the inside. I've got nothing to say about it really," Hamilton revealed about the moment with Perez to GPblog and others. Perez may think differently, as for the Red Bull Racing driver the incident meant an early end to his sprint race.
"My only thought is that it's tricky conditions out there, we're all trying our best. And of course it wasn't intentional. I went for a gap, I was slow going through 14, I went on the inside, I was more than half a car length on the inside," judged the Mercedes driver.
Hamilton quotes Senna
This reminds him of a famous quote by Formula One legend Ayrton Senna. "And if you're not going for a gap then you're no longer racing, as Ayrton always said. So that's what I did. When I watched it back it feels like a racing incident to me," the 38-year-old Briton continued.
The penalty imposed matters little to him. "In a race like today, I honestly don't really care too much. You don't get many points. Of course it would have been nice to finish fourth, but I don't really care to finish fourth, I want to win. If you fall to seventh, it doesn't really make a difference," Hamilton said.