Lewis Hamilton comes terrifyingly close to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari after lap 1 carnage

Lewis Hamilton narrowly avoided colliding with the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard crashed in lap 1 of the 2022 Japanese GP.

Lewis Hamilton started the 2022 Japanese GP P6, behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon. The Briton has featured on the podium of every Japanese GP since 2014, winning 4 of those.

But the 103-GP winner narrowly avoided the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in the first lap of the race. The race started in wet conditions and the rain intensified as the lights went green.

Sainz Lost control and was flung to the barriers as he lost control. Hamilton was following the car and narrowly missed the wreckage of the Ferrari.

The driver was radioed by his team that Sainz had crashed ahead. But the poor visibility caused by the intense spray of the cars ahead and the wet conditions made it difficult to spot the car. Especially when travelling at high speeds!

A video from Hamilton’s onboard how terrifyingly close the Briton came. He was travelling over 150 Km/h and would have suffered a major collision if he came together.

 

Luckily, Hamilton whizzed past the Ferrari. He finished P5 and said he enjoyed the restarts and the ‘sprint’ race that followed.

Lewis commented, “I had a blast out there. It was so tough in the conditions, hard to see and that’s exactly how motor racing should be, a real challenge for us all.” Lewis did not comment on the earlier incident that saw Pierre Gasly narrowly missing the recovery vehicle while cars were on track.

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Lewis Hamilton congratulates Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton battled Max Verstappen for the 2021 F1 title. The championship went until the last race of the season and ended with Max dethroning Lewis’s dominance in F1 by winning his maiden title.

The controversial ending of the 2021 title decider in Abu Dhabi resulted in Lewis not winning his record-breaking 8th title. But this year, Lewis and Mercedes were nowhere close to Red Bull and Verstappen.

Verstappen sealed the 2022 season with his 12th race at the Japanese Grand Prix. And Hamilton congratulated him saying “Congratulations to Max on his second championship.”

Lewis adds, “The outcome has been clear for a while. But he and Red Bull have done an exceptional job this year.” Max won the title with 4 races remaining and joins Lewis in the list of back-to-back Championship wins.

Also Read: Max Verstappen reveals he knew he was going to win his second championship title before Japan GP

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes will be back to winning ways in 2023

Lewis Hamilton has won a race in every single F1 season he has competed so far. But he considers his inability to win in 2022 a rude awakening for the team.

Mercedes have not won a race so far in 2022. The team had struggled at the start with porpoising and failed to produce a race-winning car as the regulations changed.

The 8-time Constructors champions bagged every season consecutively. And Hamilton concluded their 2022 campaign by saying, “We’ve not gone from being World Champions and being able to build a good car to not building a good car.”

He does not doubt Mercedes’s ability to bounce back in 2023. He adds, “I have no doubt we’ll have a better car next year. Whether or not we’ve rectified every issue we have this year, we’ll find out when we get there.”

Mercedes are closing in on Ferrari for P2 in the championship. The Italian team lead by 67 points but with 4 races left, Mercedes could throw a major surprise.

Also Read: F1 Twitter reacts to absurd second championship title win for Max Verstappen