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Alla Zakarian

12-11-2018 | 11:33 Formula 1
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Lewis Hamilton: “Verstappen should have left room for Ocon”

Lewis Hamilton believes Esteban Ocon, who was a lap behind Verstappen and knocked the leader into a spin and left him with damage, was not wholly to blame, saying it would have been “simple” for the Red Bull driver to leave him room. “I’m pretty sure there are no rules says that you can’t un-lap yourself,” said Hamilton. “I’ve done it before.” Ocon was running on super-soft tyres and lapping more quickly than Verstappen. “Ultimately when you’re in Ocon’s position you’ve got nothing to lose,” Hamilton pointed out. “You want to get through. You’ve got much quicker tyres. You’re trapped if you got much quicker tyres and the guy in front it’s not pushing that out, which Max wasn’t he was saving his tyres. So he’s cruising, holding him up. You’re gonna go for it try and get by and move forwards. And I felt like it was fair game for him to try to un-lap himself. Of course, you don’t want to cause an incident. But in those scenarios, you give each other space. It’s as simple as that. It’s so simple to give each other space.” Verstappen should have allowed more space for Ocon, said Hamilton. “You can never assume that the person is not up against your inside because he’s a backmarker and he’s going to back off. You’ve got to assume, you’ve got to acknowledge the fact that he may be there so I’m going to leave extra space. Because actually, he’s in a different race to me. That’s my opinion about it. So from my seat, it felt like it wasn’t 100 per cent one side. More like maybe it’s 60-40.”

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