Hamilton insists he ‘left Rosberg room’

2016 Austrian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton believes that Nico Rosberg was more at fault for their last lap collision in the Austrian Grand Prix.

The chain of events that led to the collision started at turn one, as Lewis recalls; “He made a mistake, clipped the inside kerb (of turn one) and went wide and I got a good run on him up to Turn Two. He blocked the inside, so the only place I could go was down the outside.”

“So I was on the racing line. He was in my blind spot, so I assumed he was still there, so I went very wide, left him plenty of room and as I started to turn – I was at the edge of the track – he collided with me.”

Asked about what would be discussed in the team’s post race debrief, Hamilton replied “It’s going to be pretty straightforward. We just do our de-brief. I don’t think anything will really be said.”

“This is what racing is about”

The stewards are yet to rule on the collision.

2016 Austrian Grand Prix

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    Chris Turner
    Being pelted by rain on his first visit to an F1 race at the 1998 British Grand Prix wasn't enough to dim Chris's passion...

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    35 comments on “Hamilton insists he ‘left Rosberg room’”

    1. Hamilton left an entire country of space. He did nothing wrong here.

      1. Yep of course he did. How desperate is this ‘story’?

      2. Pretty sure you could build a 1:1 scale replica of Baku’s turn 10 complete with castle tower in the space Hamilton left.

      3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        3rd July 2016, 18:29

        @ultimateuzair ha-ha I agree but I would have said that he left the Eurozone:-)

      4. Michael Brown (@)
        3rd July 2016, 18:46

        If he left any more he would have pulled a Brexit

    2. I was actually surprised how mich space He left, very unlike him

    3. And he did.
      But Rosberg tried to push him out on entry of the corner, not on the exit.

      Considering that he was racing the sister car, it was really a dangerous move. Both could DNF.

      This is way worse than this things Hamilton do at the starts. There was some impact there and both cars were damaged.

      1. I’m not completely impartial, but this is also how I saw it. As far as I know, you seem to be able to run the racing line on the exit of the corner and thus run people off the road (however ethical that is), but on the entry of the corner and running off the racing line into a competitor is a different matter. Similar to Massa Perez at Montreal.

    4. In hindsight, had Rosberg turned in the way he should’ve, he could’ve still won the race. The overtake was in the process, it wasn’t all said and done.

      I’m 100% with Hamilton on this one. Atrocious racing by Rosberg, who’d have thought that a brake failure also means a steering failure!

      1. Exactly.

        I think Hamilton was trying the undercut/cut back on the corner. Rosberg knew this would/could work so tried to prevent him doing it by pushing wide and off the track on turn in. But, it all went wrong.

        However, I am not convinced that Hamilton would have made overtake stick.

        If Rosberg made the corner as per normal and hamilton was still along side, he could have squeezed him and that point.

        Rosberg could have just retained the lead if he had not messed that up.

        1. Agreed. I think as he messed up turn 1, he probably went into ultra-defensive mode in frustration at turn 2. Of course, he would never admit fault as per usual… it’s disappointing. I think you’ll see Hamilton at Ferrari next season by the way.

          1. There is greater chance of Nico heading to Ferrari given he is still in contract negotiations and Lewis has a deal.

        2. Shminder Chatha
          3rd July 2016, 18:50

          @mach1
          Agreed, nico is at fault here , but i don’t think nico could retain his lead. Look at the angle at which lewis is coming in after turn 2. Surely better exit + inside line for turn 3 + DRS assist.
          And then it would have been lewis’s common racing maneuver , pushing him wide at the exit like in Canada or Japan (2015). I wonder Perez Joins nico at turn 3 if things got messy.😂😂😂
          Lol.

          1. But if Rosberg could have nosed ahead through the inside of turn 2 he may then have been able to legitimately force Hamilton out wide on the exit forcing Hamilton to back out. Looks like a much better option than crashing into him, that was never going to work.

        3. @mach1 @john-h yeah, the only problme was that Hamilton could use DRS after turn 2.

          But go figure! I’ve just realized this: had Rosberg stayed on track, with Perez stuck in the gravel at turn 3 and all the yellow flags, he could’ve held the lead, even with Hamilton and his DRS!

          Am I right @keithcollantine?

      2. @fer-no65 Assuming Rosberg did turn, they will go drag racing side-by-side on the straight with Rosberg has the benefit of inside line and Hamilton with DRS. Probably (80-20 I say) Hamilton will win, but it will be fascinating to watch. Maybe Rosberg realized this and he determined the only way is to keep Hamilton behind him out of the corner. Reasonable enough, but what he did to do that is utterly stupid.

    5. Nico needed to push Lewis off his line, Nico’s corner entry was too fast to survive the corner exit with Lewis.

      This was Spain revisited, thankfully, Nico only took himself out this time :)

      As for the penalty, there was none, just a slap on the wrist to keep things looking politically correct. Lewis has his work cut out for him, if he wins this year, it will be almost a miracle, his car will keep failing him, he will still have to contend with penalties.

      At least there are the rare moments when the plot goes pair shape and Toto and Lauda look like a couple of blithering idiots.

    6. Rosberg made a nearly identical move around the outside of Hulkenberg at turn 2 on lap 6. The difference is that Hulk took the normal inside line into the apex of 2 and Rosberg passed him without incident.

      By Rosberg’s own logic if Hulk had knocked him off the track right then it would have been justified. Evidently the stewards do not agree with Rosberg.

      1. Had a look, it was really nearly identical and so Rosberg has no leg to stand on, quite atrocious. I’m not always a huge Hamilton fan but he was very fair this time. Both drivers can be such DQ’s at times, but then it seems to be part of the sport not to accept blame and to man up.

        1. If anything Rosberg took a much tighter inside line than Hamilton did on his pass.
          I agree that owning up to your driving is not always there in F1 and that’s a shame. I respect drivers that do so.

    7. Lewis coudn’t have given Nico anymore room.
      He was already on the edge of the track on the outside. Nico made almost no effort of turning in, choosing to go as wide as possible to force Lewis off. Showing once again he doesn’t know how to handle the pressure of a quicker driver pushing him.

      He might win the title. But he will do it only if Lewis has more problems out of his control. But if he does Nico will be the least deserving WC since Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

    8. Nico did no different than what Lewis always does. Give the overtaker the option stay and crash, take avoiding action and get to the “gras” or break and stop your attempt. Most break or go to the gras, only lewis goes for the crash.

      1. If i were you, i would take a look at it again.
        He gave Hamilton no option. He was ALREADY BEHIND, not in front, and crashed into him coming from the inside and NOT DOING THE CORNER.

      2. And one other thing : he would have won the race if the move was similar to Hamilton’s as you said.
        He would do the corner on the inside than push Hamilton out on the exit at slower speed, not the entry.

      3. See comments above. Hamilton runs people off the circuit whilst staying on the racing line on the exit of the corner. Whilst not driving to be celebrated at all, it is subtlety different and within the rules however harsh it may seem.

        1. There is no differance, brake or crash that is the choice. Most drivers choose to break, lewis chooses to crash.
          For now there is no announcement that they are checking the incident, they are checking for overtaking under yellow though.

          1. William Jones
            3rd July 2016, 21:26

            None of that was true!

            1. Amazing the desperate excuses come up with, despite all the hard evidence confirming otherwise, isn’t it? ;)

          2. @jdd: amazing some people think… you area allowed to defend racing line through a corner, Ros was neither on the racing line nor he was defending, he was more like all or nothing to protect his position… knowing Ham used up his allocations this year, he is sure to pick up penalties if he were to change anything, and that i think it was in his mind to crash him… sure he would loose point but so is hamilton, double points most likely due to next race starting somewhere midway of the order! he would keep the gap, and grab more next as ham would struggle from mid pack…

    9. Watch the difference in how Verstappen defending turn 2 and not causing a crash with Rosberg and how Rosberg defends turn 2 and causes the crash on the last lap.
      2.30 into the race rewind on channel 4
      http://f1.channel4.com/video/racerewind/

    10. soundscape (@)
      4th July 2016, 9:53

      As much as I’d love to be on Hamilton’s back about a collision, this was CLEARLY Rosberg’s fault. HAM did everything right and then some. He left an acre of space. Rosberg just had a brain malfunction. Entirely self-inflicted.

    11. It was a Regular Race Corner Trajectory…

    12. @kingshark @robbie Wow you miss the race lol.

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