According to Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton's puncture on the 33rd lap of the race was not caused by debris from Alex Albon's rearview mirror crushed by Valtteri Bottas. The mirror that fell around the 30th lap was not removed from the track by the marshals, only a yellow flag, removed before Bottas passed, warned the drivers. The lack of implementation of a Virtual Safety Car by Rui Marques, the race director, was strongly criticized, especially since Carlos Sainz and the seven-time world champion suffered perforation of their tires at proximity to the debris area.
No link between the puncture and the presence of splinters
The simultaneity of Hamilton's puncture with the spread of carbon fragments from the Williams on the track suggested a link between the two incidents. However, in a video from the German team posted on YouTube, Andrew Shovlin (chief race engineer of the Silver Arrows team) indicates that according to tire pressure readings “Lewis begins to lose pressure before that the rear-view mirror is not hit by Valtteri. He concluded that “it is therefore unlikely that it was a puncture due to this debris. »
Other debris or Pirelli involved?
The British engineer specifies that “that does not mean that he did not pick up debris elsewhere”, we will therefore have to wait for Pirelli's analyzes and its investigations. “They will carry out detailed checks on the tires, to try to understand if there has been any deterioration,” recalls the chief engineer. The official supplier of tires to Formula 1 had suggested to teams not to keep the Mediums beyond 25 laps due to the constraints imposed on the front right of the single-seaters on a track which has many fast turns. Hamilton's tires were 34 laps old at the time of the accident which cost him 6 places. Sixth on the grid, he crossed the finish line in 12th position.
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