After initially stating that he did not know what had happened when he and his Sauber counterpart, Kamui Kobayashi, made contact, causing a violent crash for the Briton at Les Combes, Lewis Hamilton insisted on apologizing to the Japanese driver.<\/p>\n
\u00ab After watching the replays, I realize that it’s 100% my fault. I didn’t leave enough space for Kobayashi because I thought I was through. I would like to apologize to Kamui and my team. The team deserves better from me \u00bb. Kamui Kobayashi, on the other hand, was quite measured: \u00ab After he passed me, it wasn’t my intention to take back my place, so I stayed on my line and didn’t think he would move \u00bb.<\/p>\n
Statements confirmed by the BBC consultant and former driver, Anthony Davidson: \u00ab It was a risky maneuver, but I’m afraid it was just a racing incident. I don’t think Lewis expected Kamui to be on the outside, but there is no reason why Kobayashi shouldn’t have been there from the moment Lewis blocked the inside \u00bb.<\/p>\n
Pastor Maldonado, with whom Lewis Hamilton had a clash at the end of the second part of qualifying, resulting in a five-place grid penalty for the Venezuelan and a reprimand for the Briton, was more critical on the BBC microphone: “I think we both made a mistake yesterday, and I’m a bit disappointed to have received a penalty and not him. Anyway, it’s racing, we have to move on. It’s in the past. The only bad thing is that he did the same thing today, so I think he should focus more on his race and not make that move.” It should be noted that this maneuver was not deemed fault-worthy by the race stewards, of whom Nigel Mansell was the fourth member for this Grand Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Victim of a off-track excursion in the first third of the race, Lewis Hamilton considers himself fully responsible for his collision with Kamui Kobayashi. Pastor Maldonado, questioned on the subject, is harsh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[841,897],"class_list":["post-21282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-hamilton","tag-maldonado"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n