Lewis Hamilton, who began the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pit lane after being fined for going over his power unit allotment this season, finished ninth.
Following Mercedes manager Toto Wolff’s admission that the team had a “horror race” at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a furious Lewis Hamilton remained silent.
Despite starting from the pit lane, 39-year-old Hamilton managed to finish in P9, earning points in Baku despite never having a chance to win. Mercedes decided to take a penalty for Hamilton exceeding his power unit allowance in 2024 after qualifying on Saturday.
The seven-time Formula 1 champion did well to gain ground on a track where overtaking is known to be tough, but if Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and Sergio Perez of Red Bull hadn’t crashed on the penultimate lap, he would have finished outside the top 10. Wolff said over Mercedes’ team radio after crossing the finish line, “Lewis, good to make it to the end.”
“It was an awful race. We can all relate to it, including me. Now that we’ve accepted the penalty, at least. Let’s look ahead and proceed.
Despite his silence, Hamilton kept driving until his engineer, Peter Bonnington, came back online to direct the British driver back to the garage. Hamilton is keen to end his final season with the Silver Arrows on a high note after 11 outstanding years, as he only has seven Grands Prix left before he joins Ferrari.
Though team-mate George Russell finished third due to the previously mentioned crash, Baku wasn’t a race that any of the team will remember particularly, and Mercedes hasn’t looked strong since the summer break. Regarding his power unit penalty, Hamilton said, “I knew it was going to be a disastrous race as soon as this decision was made.”
Wolff, the team principal, continued, “We anticipated a miserable race due to Baku’s extreme difficulty in overtaking.” That was the reason behind the backward movement when the tires overheated as you approached.”
In his post-race analysis, Russell expressed confusion to Sky Sports, saying, “It was a really odd race.” We were 1.5 seconds slower than the lead after 20 laps, one second faster than Oscar winner Piastri or Charles Leclerc, and 0.3 or 0.4 seconds faster than Carlos and Checo Perez.
“The car, driver, and track are all the same, including these tires. I’m not sure how you can have two extremes. P5 was a just outcome. probably ought to have been P6, had Lando [Norris] begun at his usual position.”
Russell continued, saying, “It felt like a P20 car at first. Every driver we deal with, week in and week out, finds it somewhat frustrating, but they all have the same complaint regarding the tires. No one knows anything about these tires, even after 14 years.”
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