Mclaren’s Near Miss - Hamilton and Button Flirt With Danger

Hamilton and Button Flirt With Danger

McLaren will be particularly relieved that Lewis Hamilton won the Turkish Grand Prix. Whilst the Red Bull team created a dreadful PR mess for itself, McLaren went incredibly close to doing exactly the same thing.

Towards the end of the race both McLaren drivers were told to slow down and conserve fuel. Hamilton and Button were marginal to reach the chequered flag and had actually been forced to save fuel since lap 20. The situation became "critical" in the closing stages of the Grand Prix, and when McLaren asked Lewis to manage his speed accordingly he asked the team "If I back off is Jenson going to pass me or not?".

The McLaren pitwall replied with "No Lewis. No".

You can therefore imagine Hamilton's disgust when, not long after this exchange, Jenson ran around the outside of him on lap 48 to assume the race lead.

On the record, Lewis said that Jenson's move was "surprising" and that "the communication wasn't clear for me". His reaction at the time would have been far more colourful.

It's safe to assume that Hamilton would be livid if Jenson had stayed in front to steal the win, especially with Button enjoying most of the team's success so far this year. In that scenario, Lewis would have had every right to feel betrayed by the team and given how abrupt he can be on the radio at times, it seems unlikely that he would have held back.

McLaren management will be mighty relieved that Lewis was able to reclaim the lead from his teammate without incident.

As it was, Jenson came remarkably close to winning the race. If he had been slightly more aggressive coming onto the main straight at the start of lap 49 he could have kept Hamilton behind and gone on to secure victory.

Formula One would then have been in the amusing situation of having the top two teams in chaos.

McLaren’s drivers flirted with danger last week, and perhaps they got a little bit lucky.

Posted by Martin Porter. - Follow him on twitter @mpondaweb.

Like us on Facebook! »

More F1 Posts »

• A little update from enterF1 – and a look to the 2012 F1 season
• Why do the 2012 F1 cars feature stepped noses?
• Christmas: 2012 F1 Tickets – What's on sale and which are currently discounted?
• Merry Christmas! Get yourself some free Johnnie Walker and signed McLaren goodies
• Webber at last in Brazil
• Sebastian Vettel takes the final pole of 2011
• Lewis brilliant in Abu Dhabi
• The 2011 Abu Dhabi GP Race Log - Lewis Hamilton is the MAN
• Good Evening Mr Mansell: Vettel takes his 14 pole
• I'm off to Abu Dhabi – but will the racing get the juices flowing?

Last Comment Posted »

• You see how things unfolded by checking out the official F1 race edits which I have to say, are brilliant this...
  by Jimmy@enterF1
  [ click here to read in full ]