Hamilton Wins Russian GP As Leclerc Fumes At Ferrari Tactics

The Russian Grand Prix had fans talking as team orders were an issue again at Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel seemingly unwilling to follow a pre-race agreement to swap positions with team mate Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari came crashing back down to earth at the Russian Grand Prix as their 2019 winning run was ended — with Sebastian Vettel forced to retire and Charles Leclerc finishing third after team strategy controversy.

The Scuderia looked in a good position to add to their three-race streak after Vettel passed Lewis Hamilton and the pole-sitting Leclerc off the start, making it a Ferrari one-two, but there was early discontent as Leclerc expected to be let back ahead of his teammate after giving the tow.

Ferrari instructed Vettel to swap positions with Leclerc but when it didn’t materialise, the German said it was because Leclerc wasn’t getting close enough to allow the move to happen. Leclerc was furious, with Ferrari placating him by saying they would do the move later in the race, as Vettel was so quick, he was easily pulling away.

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The two drivers did effectively swap positions after that as Leclerc, who stopped first, undercut Vettel, but soon after his pit-stop, the four-time world champion pulled over with an engine problem.

Speaking to reporters after the race, Vettel – who surprised and delighted when he found out he won Driver of the Day – said: “I don’t know what happened. I think we had an agreement. I spoke with Charles in particular before the race. I think it was quite clear, but I don’t know, maybe I missed something. I’m sure we will talk about it, but obviously it is bitter today because we wanted to have the cars finishing one and two. It’s not the result that we wanted.”

When pushed on the specifics of what was agreed before the race, Vettel shut down. “I don’t want to share,” he said. “Not a great deal but I don’t want to put the team in a bad position afterwards because somebody said something here and there.

“I know it is not fair because I think people deserve to know. It is not a big deal. I obviously was in third, Charles was in first, and we were talking about a strategy to find a way past Lewis. I had a very good start. So there were a couple of options on the table, but sorry I really prefer not to in a way.”

Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto said an agreement was put in place pre-race to allow Vettel to slipstream Leclerc and get ahead of Hamilton so they could run one-two by the end of the first lap. It worked, only they weren’t expecting Vettel to get ahead – and then have the speed to stay ahead.

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“What was the deal? Charles would give the slipstream to Seb to make sure we were first and second at the end of the first lap and that would have put us in the best position to control and manage the race, which was the case up until the point of the unreliability,” he said.

“By the time he would have given the slipstream, and Sebastian would have had that type of advantage, ideally we would have swapped back – but Seb was very fast so I think any decision could have been postponed. Initially, we asked him to swap. That was not the case, because Charles was not sufficiently close to him. That was the deal.”

Leclerc was clearly not happy with the decision to wait stating;

“At the start, I obviously went to the left to give Seb the slipstream, I knew he would overtake, and anyway we knew that, then we just had to do the swap back and we did it at the pit stop later on in the race.”

He later insisted to Sky F1 that there were no issues with him or his team.

“We’ll try to speak now,” he explained. “I think everything has been respected in a way because I gave the slipstream then we had to do the swap back which we did at the pit-stop. That’s it.

“For sure [Seb] did a great start, but the start performance themselves were exactly the same. Then I just stayed on the left to give him the slipstream. There are no big deals and I think in the end everyone respected their own things.”

The Russian GP has the knack for throwing up exciting and controversial races and this year was no different.

Mercedes were able to extend their unbeaten run and with only 5 races left it looks as if they won’t be run down .

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