Lewis Hamilton commented on the incident with Oscar Piastri that put him under investigation by the stewards after this Saturday’s (25) Hungarian Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying. The Ferrari driver stated that he was unaware of the Australian’s approach and assured that the episode was not intentional.
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The seven-time champion came very close to securing his first pole position for Ferrari, but was ultimately surpassed by just 0s012 by Lando Norris in the final moments of Q3. However, his performance came under scrutiny by the FIA after a possible blocking of Piastri on the approach to turn 1.
The McLaren driver was starting his last flying lap when he encountered the Ferrari on the ideal line and had to abort the attempt. As a result, he finished the session only in fifth position, almost half a second behind Norris.
After qualifying, the seven-time F1 champion explained that he was only warned of Oscar’s approach when the rival was practically alongside him. “I was literally warned when he was already at the apex of the corner behind me, so I had no idea he was coming.”
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“Everyone went out behind me, I was the first to leave the pits. So I thought everyone had already finished their laps. As far as I knew, Charles was the car behind me when I left the pit lane.”
Hamilton also emphasized that qualifying had proceeded without problems until that moment and denied any intention to hinder his opponent. “It’s a crazy situation, because the session had been clean until then and, obviously, it wasn’t intentional,” he concluded.
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