Lewis Hamilton had quite the response when told of Max Verstappen's position during the United States Grand Prix.
During the race on Sunday (October 22) night, the Formula One legend was two seconds off the lead when he was asked to come in for a pit stop for a switch to hard tyres. On the team radio, a Mercedes engineer told Hamilton: "Verstappen now inside our pit window" which left Hamilton to respond with : "No s*** man. I'm struggling out here".
Unfortunately for Hamilton, the unusually slow pit stop – due to an issue with the front right tyre – left the Brit 10 seconds adrift of the reigning F1 champion which left fans perplexed at the actions of the Mercedes. One fan on social media wrote: "Mercedes strategy takes Hamilton from less than 2 seconds off the lead to 10 seconds away. Jokers.
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While another commented: "I'm no F1 strategist, but what on earth is the Mercedes doing here? Gifting 10s to everyone else and going from a tight 2nd to a distant 3rd behind Verstappen". The 38-year-old himself said: "You've given me a hell of a gap to close".
Hamilton is aiming to win his first Grand Prix this season which has been wholly dominated by Verstappen who has been the victor 14 times out of the 17 races this year as he strolled to a third consecutive F1 championship. At 26 years old, the Red Bull maverick has years left in the sport where he'll surely give the records of Hamilton and Michael Schumacher a run for its money.
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While Hamilton is in the tail end of his career, he admitted that once his time in F1 comes to an end, he won't seek the racing thrill in other organisations like Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button who've competed in NASCAR. "I don't feel the urge to enter other competitions after F1," Hamilton said to French TV broadcaster Canal+. "I love watching races like Le Mans, it looks incredible. I love Moto, I've always loved MotoGP. I still do, I've got two superbikes.
"I think I'll ride motorbikes, but not competitively. I've got lots of other things to do, I don't think I'll be doing any more competitions, at least not as a professional. It takes too much time."
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