LONDON: Lewis Hamilton has never asked for favoured treatment at Mercedes and the team orders that helped him to third place at the Malaysian Grand Prix were made only out of necessity, according to principal Ross Brawn.
Brawn told Sky Sports F1 in an interview that both Hamilton, the 2008 F1 world champion, and German team mate Nico Rosberg were told to hold position purely because of a fuel issue. Rosberg, who finished fourth, had repeatedly asked for Hamilton to be told to let him through because the German felt he was faster.
“I didn’t like having to give the orders I gave in Malaysia, it’s not in my sporting nature and I think the team have demonstrated many times in the past that we are very happy to let our drivers race each other,” Brawn said.
“From a technical perspective, we would have looked extremely foolish if we’d run both cars out of fuel,” he added. Hamilton was uncomfortable with the situation after the race at Sepang, saying on the podium that he felt Rosberg - who won last year’s Chinese Grand Prix for the team - should have been standing there instead of him. REUTERS
