Oct.12 - Lewis Hamilton denies he was "furious" with Mercedes' race strategy call in Turkey.

As Spain's AS newspaper observed, "A Mercedes won the race, but there was no loud cheering in the pits when the world champion complained on the other line about a dubious strategy".

Indeed, Hamilton was vocally upset on Sunday when he discovered that pitting against his protestations for a new set of intermediate tyres dropped him out of podium contention.

Some in the British press said he was "furious".

"It isn't true to say I'm furious with my team," Hamilton insisted on Monday.

"I wanted to risk it and try and go to the end, but it was my call to stay out and it didn't work. In the end we did pit and it was the safest thing to do."

Even Red Bull's Christian Horner agreed that the visible state of Hamilton's worn inter tyres was "dangerous".

His Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff said the condition of the tyres was "really scary".

However, seven time world champion Hamilton said after the race that Esteban Ocon managed to get through the entire race on a single set of tyres.

"Looking at the tyres after the race, I would say no, or at least it was really at the limit," said Pirelli chief Mario Isola when asked if Hamilton's tyres also would have lasted.

"It was a bit dangerous to push the boundaries. I was suggesting to our allocated engineers to warn the teams to change the tyres and not to go to the end because it was a risky move," he added.

As for Hamilton's open dissent and anger on the radio, Wolff said he understands the frustration.

"We have no problem if things get a little fiery on the radio," said the Austrian.

"Of course, we wouldn't speak in such a tone to a driver who is out there at 320kph, but everything is fine.

"We have thick skin because we understand that there are situations that frustrate a racing driver. But he understood the situation better a little later."


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11 F1 Fan comments on “Hamilton denies being furious at team about late pitstop

  1. Teresa Bailey

    Hamilton is just a poor loser. He always has been and never had any class. History may show him with the most wins but character wise he will never rank as a Champion like Fangio, Clark, Schumacher, Senna etc.

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    • John Mitchell

      You people make we want to vomit.Jim Clark was one of the greatest and unlike Senna, never had a bad attitude. The same applies to Lewis and Jim would absolutely admire him for his driving. Its the anti Hamilton fans who are the poor losers.I certainly do not write in praising Lewis at all but then I do not rubbish him and only pathetic moaning losers criticize a 7-time World Champion with 100 Grand Prix wins under his belt. No one has ever done this and probably never will. There has always been teams that have great periods of success like Red Bull when Sebastian V was with them. It happens all the time. Ferrari had it for years also, so don't credit success just because the driver has a better car. It also needs a better driver and Mercedes have them. Sure that will change. Some teams have drivers that have yet to grow up and the same team has management that also needs to grow up. Quite often these teams also have supporters that have the same problem.

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  2. Swede

    Hamilton appeared upset with the decision at the time, saying over team radio: "F---, man, why did you give up that place? We shouldn't have come in".

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