Lewis Hamilton addressed his "misjudgement" as he failed to hand back P8 to his teammate, Charles Leclerc, during the 2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The latter had given his position to Hamilton earlier on lap 44 for him to make the most use of his fresher tires and attempt an overtake on the drivers ahead.
The race down at Baku wasn't a fruitful one for Ferrari as both drivers failed to put a top-five drive despite showcasing promising pace during the second practice sessions on Friday. Leclerc and Hamilton started the race in P10 and P12, and were stuck behind traffic for most of the race. However, the Briton's late pit stop meant that he had a better chance than Leclerc to overtake the cars ahead, and so the team asked Leclerc, who was running P8, to swap positions.
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Charles Leclerc admitted the team orders and made the swap; however, after Lewis Hamilton failed to overtake, the team asked him to give the position back to Leclerc on the final lap. However, that did not happen.
Speaking to the media after the race, Hamilton explained that he did lift off on the final straight, but there was a misjudgement, and that he would apologize to his teammate.
"Firstly...obviously I was quicker [in that moment of the race] but Charles was gracious to let me by," he told the media (via The Race). "At the end I got the message really late on, and I was like zoned in on the car in front of me, even though there was like 0.0001% chance of passing, I was still hopeful maybe."
He added:
"And basically I did lift on the straight, and did actually brake, but he missed it by like four tenths. That was just a misjudgment by myself. I'll apologise to Charles. At the end of the day that's [only] eighth and ninth."
The race turned out to be costly for Ferrari, as they lost their lead in second place in the Constructors' Championship to Mercedes. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli managed to bring in a P2 and a P4, moving the team up a place in the championship and giving them a four-point lead over Ferrari.
"Slow all weekend": Lewis Hamilton's teammate makes brutal admission after disappointing race in Baku
Although Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc topped the charts during the second free practice session on Friday, they failed to replicate the pace during qualifying for the main race. Hamilton only managed to finish P12, and Leclerc's crash put him down in P10.
Starting the race from there, both drivers had minimal chances of making any moves. Charles Leclerc claimed that the team had "no pace" throughout the weekend.
"Unfortunately, we have been very slow all weekend, and that's what we should focus on. P8 and P9, or P9 and P8, is not something that really interests me. It's fine," Leclerc said.
With seven races remaining in the season, Ferrari still has the chance to clinch second place back from Mercedes. However, with the pace Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc had in Baku, it could become a difficult target.
