“I don’t need to play no tactics”– Lewis Hamilton swipes at Romain Grosjean, who questioned the former’s intentions in Q3.
Lewis Hamilton was appeared to slow down Max Verstappen in the last flying lap of Q3 outside the pitstop area, and it attracted a massive uproar from fans who even booed him later.
Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean also gave his opinion on the incident and called it “not pretty” considering Hamilton deliberately held Verstappen.
The same tweet was then brought to the notice of hamilton later, who got immensely irked by the statement and mocked Grosjean for his absence in F1.
“I mean, it’s so silly man. Everyone was going slow – did you not watch everybody else? I don’t understand. Do you think I could’ve gone quicker and then been just closer to Valtteri?
“I mean, everyone was doing a slow out-lap. It was no different, really, to any other lap. Of course, each time we’re going out we’re trying to prepare the tyres and keep them cooler because they get so hot throughout the lap.”
“I wasn’t playing any tactics. I don’t need to play no tactics, man. I know what I’m doing in the car and it’s fast enough, we don’t need to add tactics.”
“So, those that are making the comments really don’t clearly know anything about the job that we’re doing here, which is probably why they’re not driving here.”
Wanted to acquire the best gap
Hamilton then tried to clarify all the accusations of slowing down Verstappen and claimed that he was seeking an appropriate gap from his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who went before him.
“We were one of the last of the cars out.
“I knew that ahead of those guys, ahead of Valtteri and whoever was ahead of him, would all bunch up towards the end of the lap, so I tried to make as big a gap as possible.
“And then even still with that at the end of the lap, we still had to pull back off and wait for everyone to get going. So, [I was] just trying to make sure that I had the best gap ahead of me.
“But, ultimately, I think now of us probably had the best tyre prep for that lap because everyone was going slow.”
