Mercedes have ruled out gifting Lewis Hamilton a ‘payback’ win despite the team’s blunder that cost the two-time world champion a win at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.
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Hamilton lead the race from the beginning, however he was called in by his team to put on a fresh set of tyres under safety car conditions with 14 laps remaining.
It was a massive miscalculation by Mercedes, with Hamilton exiting pit lane in third place.
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff said is team would not “play PlayStation” and
“You would want me to do this and then to start to play PlayStation with F1?” Wolff is quoted as saying by The Mirror.
“No, we’re not doing this.”
Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda said it was a major error made by the team and that he had apologised to Hamilton straight after the race.
“It was a mistake by the team,” Lauda is quoted as saying by Reuters.
“Lewis said he was not happy with the tires and they over-reacted completely wrong and called him in. There was no need, no reason. It was simply a mistake.
“They over-reacted 10 laps before the end, in Monaco. Where you can’t pass anyway…we destroyed his race. I apologized already.”
The strategy error handed the race win to Nico Rosberg, with Sebastian Vettel crossing the line in second place.
Hamilton now leads the world championship by just 10 points over Rosberg, with the next round to be held in Montreal, Canada.
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