Hamilton's action shows agreement doesn't work in qualifying
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton almost single-handedly prevented both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez from completing their final laps. He waited until the very last moment to start his lap, which meant that Verstappen could only just start his last qualifying lap. This was however with cold tyres.
Sergio Perez, however, was unable to complete a lap. Yet he says to Motorsport.com not all the blame lies with Hamilton.
"I haven't had a chance to look at it in detail yet, but I think Lewis did drop a normal gap on Bottas on his own. Something must have happened before that, maybe someone behind Gasly dropped a gap."
Hamilton did nothing special according to Perez
For where Marko and the fans, among others, thought this was the case, alongside Horner, the Mexican also has a different opinion.
"I think Lewis kept a normal difference. I just paid a price for being the last car on the track. My teammate was in front of me and I thought it was important to respect Max. I'm sure Max would have done the same the other way around." He had additionally found it unsportsmanlike of himself to overtake Verstappen for it.
"It's just very unsportsmanlike for the driver in question to do something like that, at least: that's how I see it. In any case, the whole course of events shows again that the so-called 'gentlemen's agreement' in qualifying doesn't always work very well. Today we have seen another good example of the non-existence of a 'gentlemen's agreement'. If someone leaves a ridiculously big gap, then it just doesn't work."
Perez will start on the softs together with Verstappen, while Hamilton and Bottas will do so on the medium. Two completely different strategies prior to the race.