F1 Lewis Hamilton: The Briton lost the race in Azerbaijan after losing control of his car and went into the run-off area at turn 1.
Lewis Hamilton had a golden opportunity to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix during the race restart, with Max Verstappen going out with the crash.
Even if Hamilton had ended up with a P3, he would have had a considerable lead over Verstappen in the championship. But Hamilton killed his chances with his own bare hands.
The Briton’s car tyres were smoking hot before the grid start ahead of the 50th lap, and after the start, he was nudging past Perez, but unfortunately, locked up violently and skid past turn 1 into the run-off area.
Why did it happen? Surely, the brakes didn’t work sufficiently to make a turn, but whose fault it was, absolutely Hamilton’s, and how it happened?
The Magic
Apparently, Hamilton accidentally pressed a button on the backside of his steering, which Mercedes call a magic button– which moves W12’s break balance to the forward tyres.
Usually, the balance bias could shift to 53-57% to the front, but this trigger reportedly took it to 75%, leaving minimal brake control to his rear-tyres.
Hamilton asked his race engineer whether he switched on the magic; in response, he got an affirmative answer; perplexed, Hamilton swore that he remember switching it off.
This means he would have accidentally pushed the button before the restart. The magic button is usually used during the free practices and qualifying to inject heat into the front tyres.
Source
Saved Max Verstappen
The Dutch race driver was clearly relieved with Hamilton securing no points from the race, as he finished P15, leaving their tally unmatched after the Azerbaijan race.
Perez’s win was the silver lining for Red Bull, who got a significant extension in their lead in the constructors’ championship over their main rivals– Mercedes.
