Ferrari made an unsuccessful attempt to swap their drivers on the final lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer instructed him to let his team mate past as they accelerated towards the finishing line. Although Hamilton did slow down, he still took the chequered flag in front of the team’s other car.
Ferrari gave the order after Charles Leclerc was told to let Hamilton by earlier in the race. The pair ran different strategies, Hamilton pitting onto the medium tyre compound later in the race, and the team swapped the running order in the hope Hamilton would be able to overtake cars ahead of them.
“So, Charles, we want to swap the cars in turn one and let Lewis try with the mediums,” Leclerc’s race engineer Bryan Bozzi told him. Leclerc promptly slowed down at turn one and let Hamilton by.
However he was unable to make any progress and began the final lap in eighth place ahead of his team mate. Bozzi told Leclerc he would therefore get his position back.
“We will swap back at the end of the lap on the main straight if Lewis doesn’t overtake,” Bozzi told Leclerc as they began the final lap. As he accelerated out of turn 16 for the last time Bozzi repeated: “Lewis will let you by on the main straight.”
Hamilton’s race engineer Ricardo Adami told him: “You can let Charles by, he’s one and a half behind you,” and told him to beware of Isack Hadjar behind them in 10th place.
“This is the last lap,” said Adami. “Behind him is Hadjar, two seconds, Charles 1.5 behind. Let him by.”
Hamilton slowed down as they approached the finishing line, but still beat Leclerc to the line by 0.464 seconds.
This article will be updated
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