Lewis Hamilton has "mixed emotions" after "painful" Azerbaijan Grand Prix and Mansour Ojjeh death

Hamilton, Ojjeh, McLaren — Photo: © LAT Images

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Hamilton has "mixed emotions" after "painful" Azerbaijan Grand Prix and Ojjeh death

Hamilton threw away a podium finish in Baku

Ewan Gale

Monday 7 June 2021 08:08

Lewis Hamilton revealed to having "mixed emotions" after surrendering a potential Azerbaijan Grand Prix win on the same day as the death of McLaren shareholder Mansour Ojjeh died.

The seven-time champion was brought through the junior ranks and into F1 by the McLaren group and posted a heartfelt message on social media ahead of the race to pay tribute to the French-born Saudi billionaire.

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In the race itself, Hamilton initially led before being pegged back by both Red Bulls. Championship rival Max Verstappen suffered a tyre blowout in the closing stages before Hamilton went straight on at turn one at the restart after the subsequent red flag delay to throw away a points finish.

Asked whether it was a good thing to experience bad luck on the same day as Verstappen, Hamilton insisted: "It is irrelevant really.

"It doesn't make any difference, to be honest. These are lessons that are sent to try us. It's just quite difficult also because I lost a friend this morning so it's a mixture of emotions. We live to fight another day."

Hamilton rues "painful experience"

The result means that Hamilton has gathered just seven points across two races at Monaco and Baku with Mercedes firmly on the back foot at both events.

The issue at the restart was caused by accidentally triggering a 'brake magic' mode, aimed to be used during safety car periods for tyre and brake warm-up by pushing brake bias to the front, causing a major lock-up event into the first corner.

"I think it has been an incredibly difficult two races," he added.

"I think it is obviously a very painful experience. It was obviously bad luck but Max had bad luck too and these sorts of things happen.

"Naturally sorry to all the team and we just regroup and come back stronger. There is lots of positives to take from the weekend in terms of where we recovered to get back to. Come back stronger.

When asked if Perez's form could complicate Hamilton's quest for championship number eight, the British driver replied: "We can see the Red Bull is the quickest at the moment.

"Very very hard to keep up with them, so to have been in the mix and in that position was a really amazing experience and really humbling experience to come away with nothing after all the hard work but these things happen."