Lewis Hamilton’s excuse to explain his blunder in the Azerbaijan highlight: he pressed the ‘magic’ button

Lewis hamilton was, without a doubt, the great Azerbaijan GP loser. Fortune left him the leadership of the championship on a tray (who knows if he does not end up missing the lost points) after the abandonment of Max verstappen by accident, but in the highlight went to the escape under a smoke of your braking pass.

Alonso’s master lesson and Hamilton’s colossal blunder: this was the ‘mini-race’ of two laps of Baku

It is not common to see Hamilton make these mistakes, far from it. Wore 54 Grands Prix scoring (with the exception of Sakhir’s GP that was lost due to contracting Covid) and in Baku he finished third to last. The reason: an exit from the track when he was fighting Sergio perez for the lead in the highlight of that two-lap ‘mini-race’.

Already on the grill of this new start you could see that the brakes of the Mercedes they threw smoke, something that is relatively common, so as soon as you see how it was going to loophole with locked front wheels, many thought the brakes were affected. And, as he explained later, it was … although not because of a fault. Hamilton reported that behind this blockage was the braking distribution system, which they activate from the steering wheel with a button that he accidentally pressed.

“On that restart, when Checo approached me, I hit a switch. I just went straight. It’s very difficult to accept. Above all, I am very sorry for the team people, who have worked very hard for the points,” he recounted after the race.

Fernando Alonso’s impressive highlight at the Azerbaijan GP: from 10th to 6th in five corners

Hamilton refers to a ‘magic’ button that they do not have other equipment and that it serves to change the braking distribution towards the front end. It is usually used in the preparation laps, in the grid training or with the safety car. The goal is to maintain optimal tire temperature, something key to start a lap launched in search of a pole time, to start the grid (as was the case) or for a relaunch.

Reaction of Toto wolffMercedes boss, seeing Hamilton’s blunder speaks for itself, as the team leaves Baku with 0 points.

After this race, Hamilton remains second in the World Cup behind Verstappen, who continues to have a four-point lead in front of the overall.