Vettel hits Hamilton as Ricciardo wins

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A LOOSE head restraint cost Lewis Hamilton victory in a chaotic and incident-packed Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel was penalised for driving into his title rival.

A remarkable race that featured three safety cars and several crashes, including clashes between team-mates, was won by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was last and lapped after the first lap, passed Williams driver Lance Stroll on the final straight as the 18-year-old Canadian scored his first podium in his eighth race after a mature drive.

The result was doubly bitter for Hamilton as he ended up finishing fifth, a place behind Ferrari’s Vettel, and losing ground in the championship despite dominating the race until his unusual problem.

Vettel was given a 10-second stop-go penalty for swerving into Hamilton’s Mercedes as they prepared for a re-start at the end of one of three safety car periods.

But the time Hamilton lost being forced to pit for a new head restraint put him behind Vettel. He followed him past a number of cars as they recovered positions, and closed up as the race entered its final lap, but the Englishman was not able to pass.

Hamilton lost two points to Vettel and is 14 points behind after eight of 21 races.

The controversial incident between Hamilton and Vettel happened as they prepared for the re-start after the second safety car period.

Vettel ran into the back of Hamilton as he accelerated out of Turn 15, the penultimate corner, damaging his front wing. The German then pulled alongside Hamilton’s Mercedes and drove into it, banging wheels.

Vettel told his team over the radio that he believed Hamilton had deliberately slowed, saying: “He brake-tested me. What the hell is going on?”

Hamilton told his Mercedes engineers: “Vettel literally just came alongside me and hit me.”

When he was told of the penalty, Vettel said: “Tell me when I did dangerous driving.” Ferrari told him they would discuss it after the race.

Hamilton said over the radio, addressing his remarks directly at race director Charlie Whiting, that he believed a 10-second penalty was “not enough for driving behaviour like that – you know that, Charlie.”

Before the stewards delivered their verdict on Vettel’s driving, Hamilton’s race had already fallen apart.

He had controlled it from the start, despite the chaos behind him, and was leading Vettel by 2.5 seconds after 28 of 51 laps when the cockpit head restraint padding that protects the drivers from impacts began to lift on the straight.

His race engineer asked him to try to push it back down again but he was unable to force it into position and Mercedes were ordered to pit Hamilton to fix a restraint into position.

He rejoined in eighth place and fought his way up past Esteban Ocon’s Force India, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen before the end. — SuperSport

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