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“Did I leave the magic on?”– Lewis Hamilton’s Achilles heel moment

Tanish Chachra
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"Did I leave the magic on?"– Lewis Hamilton's Achilles heel moment

“Did I leave the magic on?”– Lewis Hamilton loses the chance to regain his dominance in the championship, slipping away literally and figuratively.

Max Verstappen had the most unfortunate end to his quest in Azerbaijan; the 23-year-old race driver’s hard compound tyres deceived him and forcing a crash on the straight before turn 1.

The devastated Verstappen marched off from the circuit to the paddock, while his team couldn’t believe what happened. But this was the time for Lewis Hamilton to regain his lead in the drivers’ championship by remaining at his position.

Red Bull concerned with the dangers the old tires posed on the track, as Verstappen’s crash was totally identical to Lance Stroll’s, asked FIA to raise the red flags citing the issue.

The standing start from the red flags promised him more, as he could gain on Sergio Perez for the final two laps of the race, but Azerbaijan had some twists to offer.

Lewis Hamilton slips away.

During the restart, Hamilton seemed to have a better start than Perez, but as turn 1 approached, all the cars steered in the right direction except Hamilton.

Whose brakes looked to have no control, maybe due to the overhead, and he straight dropped to the 15th position. Ironically, Verstappen got the fastest lap point for his 44th lap timing, meaning he further added into his lead despite not completing the race.

Watch the video

Meanwhile, with Perez keeping his P1, he extended Red Bull’s lead over Mercedes in the constructors’ table by 26 points.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra

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Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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