A late-race safety car forced Lewis Hamilton to work twice as hard as he should have to win Sunday’s Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver thinks that was intentional.
Hamilton claims that race control’s decision to deploy the safety car on Lap 30 of the 44-lap contest was NASCAR-esque, as it wasn’t necessary, according to NBC Sports.
The safety car was called out at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps after two Sahara Force India drivers collided at Eau Rougue, spraying bodywork along the old start-finish straight. At the time, Hamilton told his team over the radio that it was a “BS” call, claiming that the debris was cleared during the yellow-flag period.
“I felt it was a bit like NASCAR, where they keep pulling out the safety cars for no reason,” Hamilton said. “The wing was cleared. After we’d slowed down they could have done a Virtual Safety Car but I guess they wanted to see a race.”
With the field bunching up behind the safety car, the gap that Hamilton had built up to Sebastian Vettel was negated, forcing him to push hard in the closing laps. Scuderia Ferrari had better race pace than Mercedes, with Hamilton telling the U.K.’s Channel 4 that Vettel was “so fast” Sunday.
“Particularly, those last laps — with him (Vettel) on the Ultrasoft tire — I was having to do qualifying laps. Hamilton said. “I was 110% every lap, it was on the limit. The tires were over the temperature.”
Thumbnail photo via Mercedes-AMG Petronas
