The Haas driver survived the worst of splashes behind the F1 team during the wet race at the Istanbul Park circuit, a challenge he had to deal with both in front of and behind him while being lapped later in the race.
Mazepin felt that the spray on the Istanbul track was worse due to the dirt kicked up from the track surface, which made visibility difficult when mixed with the pre-race rain shower and resulting spray.
On lap 28, Mazepin was on the verge of being lapped by Hamilton, but stayed on the racing line at fast Turn 11, which almost led to a collision between the two and forcing Hamilton to swerve.
FIA Race Director Michael Masi looked at the near-collision between Mazepin and Hamilton but ultimately concluded that an investigation was not necessary.
Mazepin said he will apologize to the Mercedes driver for the incident and has not been investigated by the stewards for ignoring the blue flags as he accused the dirty spray and lack of information his Haas team had about Hamilton behind him.
“First of all, I apologize very much for Lewis. I complained to the team that I can’t see anything with the mirrors, and I need precise guidance in my ears as to where the other cars are because the spray – and Turkey is not exactly the cleanest spray we have , so it flies and dries up – so I drove blind, ”said Mazepin, who finished the race in 20th place.
“When you overtake so many cars that don’t lap you once, but even twice, it was simply a disaster. I’m glad we managed to get away with it, but I’ll see Lewis and apologize to him. “
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
Lando Norris was also of the opinion that the spray on the Turkish track was worse compared to other tracks, as dirt and debris from the track surface mixed with the spray water.
“In the laps before the start, I basically couldn’t see anything,” said Norris. “I was actually quite scared of how bad it was and even on the first lap, but I think on the first lap I managed to make a gap and control it very well from then on.
“I think it’s because the water is pretty much on the surface. And as if it obviously wasn’t dry so there’s always a bit of water and I guess it’s not like down in the cracks.
“It’s horrible on other tracks, probably every other track you go on, it’s just stayed bad a little longer [here]. It was more of an oily water than just water, so it got a bit more blurry and how much water got into the visor. “
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Tsunoda partially blamed the dirty spray for his race-destroying spin, as he couldn’t see clearly in his mirrors and thought he had a car behind him that forced him to push harder and make him spin.
“I just did a spin and tried to go faster. There wasn’t [a clear] Mirror, I couldn’t see anything because of dirt and dust, ”he explained.
“I just couldn’t watch, I thought there was a car right behind me so I just had to push and spin, but still the spin ruined my whole race so it’s a shame. We were able to score points today, that’s just a shame. “
The post “Driving blind” in dirty spray caused a near miss with Hamilton first appeared on monter-une-startup.
