F1 News
Hamilton: With his crash "Leclerc could have dominated Vettel in Baku"
Lewis Hamilton believes the result in Baku would have been different had Charles Leclerc not crashed in qualifying. The five-time world champion insists Leclerc would have dominated Sebastian Vettel if the man from Monaco avoided the walls on Saturday.
The 21-year-old Ferrari driver was looking strong, topping the charts in practice until he crashed on medium tyres. Ferrari put him on medium tyres so that he could start on the harder compound.
Hamilton believes this strategy would have worked out for Ferrari.
“Having looked back I’m not surprised [they did that]. I think he had the pace to get through on that tyre. And if he had got through on that tyre and qualified in Q3 he would have been on pole," Hamilton told RaceFans.
“There are races that we go to that if you can get through on the harder tyre, it is better. Especially in a race like that where the start distance is so short, the benefit of a softer tyre is minimised.
“So if he’d started on that tyre we would not have seen him. He would have disappeared as we all struggled on the soft tyre throughout the race.”