Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has blamed "a misjudgement" on behalf of Lewis Hamilton as the reason why he did not follow through on a team order on the final lap of Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hamilton had been instructed to allow past team-mate Charles Leclerc almost as a 'thank you' gesture for the Monégasque giving the seven-time F1 champion the opportunity earlier in the race to hunt down several drivers ahead of him.
Leclerc had pitted relatively early before switching tyres, whilst Hamilton went longer before taking on his preferred mediums, and was soon on the back of the lead Ferrari in eighth, which was chasing Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson in fifth, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in his Red Bull and McLaren's Lando Norris.
Hamilton, however, was unable to make any inroads due to the DRS train that had developed, leading to the instruction to allow by Leclerc.
The 40-year-old stated after the race that he held on whilst he felt there was even a "0.001 per cent" chance of passing Norris, until realising he would be unable to make the move, before eventually easing off the throttle and braking, only to cross the line just under half a second ahead of Leclerc.
Hamilton later said he would apologise for his error; Leclerc, meanwhile, expressed a degree of frustration that the Briton had not respected the unwritten rule that exists between team-mates in such situations, hoping that when "sexier positions" were up for grabs, rather than eighth and ninth, the situation would be different.
Asked about the confusion that seemingly arose, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Vasseur said: "Confusion? No.
"The situation was clear for us, that Lewis had a tyre advantage, and we asked Charles to let him go to try to overtake Tsunoda, Norris.
"On top of that, Charles had an issue with [energy] recovery; we were not at the top with the engine, so it was the best option for us to do this move.
"We then asked to swap back, and it looks like Lewis had a misjudgment on the position of the start-finish line."
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