Toto Wolff has praised Lewis Hamilton’s conduct in the wake of the Italian Grand Prix after the seven-time world champion was judged to be at fault for an incident with McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.
Hamilton was attempting an overtake on Piastri on fresh Pirelli rubber when he wandered over to the right-hand side of the track, leaving the Aussie with nowhere to go and forcing a collision between the two cars.
The Stevenage-born driver escaped from the contact unharmed, but Piastri was forced to pit and replace his front wing, scuppering any chance of picking up points on his first Monza outing in F1 machinery.
Speaking after the race, Wolff admitted: “Yeah, that was Lewis’ mistake. I think a five-second penalty for that is what the menu says. These things happen, it’s hard racing. You’ve got to overtake here and we’ve seen a few of these. It’s justifiable.
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“He’s very sportsmanlike with these things, he is the only one that I see out there admitting and saying: ‘I got this wrong’. We just had a chat. [He said]: ‘I didn’t see him on the right and it was on me.’
“That kind of sportsmanship is what you need to admire with him. Pretty much everyone is always complaining and moaning just to try to not get a penalty.”
These comments come after the Briton approached Piastri after the race. Hamilton went out of his way to apologise to the 22-year-old in parc ferme, shaking hands in a short exchange with the rookie, who was still in his cockpit at the time.
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Hamilton’s race was largely unaffected by the incident in question. The 38-year-old comfortably dispatched Piastri’s McLaren team-mate Lando Norris and Williams driver Alex Albon, putting him in clean air to stretch out his advantage.
With no cars ahead to hold him up, Hamilton opened up a gap of over seven seconds to Albon’s Williams before the chequered flag waved, sealing a sixth-place finish in spite of the five-second time penalty.
Talking about his afternoon, Hamilton said: “I think every position we are getting in these races is seeming to be incredibly hard and fought for. Starting on the hard tyre today, it was nice to be offset but it was difficult at the beginning. I enjoyed the battle I had at the end.
“It was a bit unfortunate and I misjudged the gap I had with Piastri right at the end. It was totally my fault and I went and apologised to him straight afterwards and we move on.”
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