“I really like Lewis Hamilton and wish him the best”: Nikita Mazepin says he didn’t want the Mercedes driver to be penalized for ‘impending’ him during practice
Nikita Mazepin admitted that he is happy about Lewis Hamilton walking away without getting penalized after his incident on Saturday.
Hamilton and Mazepin avoided a potentially nasty collision during FP3 in Jeddah. The Mercedes driver was going slowly around turn 8 when Mazepin was on his flying lap.
The twisty part of the circuit around that corner is a blind spot for drivers. So, it wasn’t until the last moment that the Russian saw Hamilton’s W12 and moved out of the way.
Lewis avoided making contact by moving left quickly, whereas Mazepin cut the corner by moving to the right of the curb. The former was summoned to the steward’s office following this incident but was let go with a reprimand and a €25,000 fine.
Tinpot:
Gasly and Mazepin just deliberately forced Sir Lewis Hamilton off track out of nothing more than frustration and anger at being briefly inconvenienced. pic.twitter.com/1mA1N5Yo7X— karabogaf1 (@karabogaf1) December 4, 2021
Hamilton went on to take pole position for Sunday’s race during Qualifying. He will start alongside teammate Valtteri Bottas on the front row and crucially ahead of title rival Max Verstappen, who starts P3.
Also read: Lewis Hamilton praises Valtteri Bottas as the two drivers locked the front row at Saudi Arabian GP
Mazepin doesn’t want Lewis Hamilton to be penalized for something that involved both of them
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was not happy with this verdict. He accused FIA of favouring the big teams like Mercedes and suggested that the decision wouldn’t have been the same the other way around.
Mazepin, on the other hand, said he didn’t want the Briton to be punished. He added that he’s happy Hamilton was not penalized. “I really like Lewis and I really wish him all the best in his title fight.” he said.
“I wouldn’t want him to be penalized for something that was together with me. “I’m in my first year in Formula 1. He was probably focusing on thinking how to find a bit of lap time for qualifying.”
So if the cost was for me not to complete one of my laps in FP3, so be it.”
Also read: Lewis Hamilton admits Max Verstappen crash ‘gifted’ him Saudi Arabia pole position
Lewis Hamilton spoke to Nikita Mazepin after the incident
Mazepin later revealed that Hamilton had texted him soon after the unfortunate event. He shrugged it off by saying it was no big deal. “I was on a fast lap going through Turns 7 and 8, which are flat in our car.” the 22-year-old continued.
📻 FIA to Haas after the Mazepin/Hamilton near-miss:
Masi: “Not great at all, which is why I will deal with it with the team directly, and I’ve also had a chat to them here, because there was no flags of any form shown through that sector”#F1 #SaudiArabianGP
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) December 4, 2021
“We train to have the reactions necessary to avoid these kinds of situations. Lewis has been very nice and we sent each other texts about that.”
“I just hoped that he had a good qualifying and he did as always, so that’s the main thing.” he concluded.
Also read: Jos Verstappen confirms son Max will not join Mercedes if Toto Wolff is in-charge
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