Lewis Hamilton at centre of Ferrari team orders in untelevised Baku GP radio call

Lewis Hamilton was asked to let Charles Leclerc past before the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but appeared to not manage it in time before the finish line.

Hamilton was allowed past Leclerc on fresher tyres to try and attack Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris ahead of him, but without putting a gap between him and his teammate, Ferrari asked for the positions to be reversed again before the line.

Lewis Hamilton asked to let Leclerc by in unbroadcast radio message

While the TV cameras caught the four-car battle crossing the line, Hamilton had held a gap of more than a second to Leclerc heading up to the line.

The seven-time World Champion slowed down and moved off the racing line as he approached the line, but crossed it four tenths clear of Leclerc at the chequered flag.

In a team radio message now circulating, race engineer Riccardo Adami told Hamilton: “[Leclerc] one-and-a-half [seconds] behind you. This is the last lap… let him by.”

In moving away from the racing line, Hamilton looked to comply with the team order and looked in his mirrors, but crossed the finish line before his teammate could reach him.

Key statistics after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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The positions involved were largely inconsequential in the context of the championships, however, as the two Ferrari drivers were running eighth and ninth on the road on the day.

Hamilton, running on medium tyres in his final stint, was closing up quickly on Leclerc and allowed past to try and mount an attack on the cars ahead, but in not doing so, the Scuderia looked to re-establish the order.

Addressing the call after the race, Hamilton said: “Firstly, obviously I was quicker [earlier on], but Charles was gracious to let me by.

“At the end, I got the message really late on, and I was zoned in on the car in front of me, even though there was like a 0.0001 per cent chance of passing, and I was still hopeful, maybe.

“Basically, I did lift on the straight and did actually brake, but I missed it by like four tenths…so I apologise to Charles. At the end of the day, it’s eighth and ninth.”

At the front, Max Verstappen took a dominant victory for Red Bull in Azerbaijan to win his second race in a row, while World Championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out on the first lap.

Norris crossed the line seventh to slightly reduce the arrears to his teammate in the Drivers’ standings to 25 points, while George Russell and Carlos Sainz rounded out the podium, with former Ferrari driver Sainz earning his first top-three finish as a Williams driver.

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