Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton says he was surprised he caught his “serious moment” in French Grand Prix second practice immediately before his incident with Max Verstappen.
Hamilton went wide at Turn 3 and sideways over the kerb, taking out a plastic bollard, but regained control of the car as he slid into the run-off area on the outside of Turn 4.
He then rejoined the track in front of Verstappen, causing the Red Bull driver to run off track at Turn 5 – an incident that was initially investigated, but that stewards ultimately decided required no further action.
“It was a serious moment,” said Hamilton, who was second fastest in FP2 behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
“I’m surprised that I caught it, I think if I had gone round I might have gone off into the wall.
“So I kind of got it under control drifting, and then I had to apply the brake and come off the brake, and apply the brake and a little bit of gas to try and keep the balance.
“It was kind of cool. So I’m definitely happy with the save, and it didn’t really damage the tyres either.”
Commenting on the Verstappen moment, Hamilton said he had tried to “trundle” back on track to stay out of the way, and could not see the Red Bull in his mirrors.
“I just tried to trundle back on to the track, away from the racing line, but naturally eventually you then get to the racing line,” Hamilton added.
“I was looking in my mirror, but being along the white line, behind you, there’s nothing there, because Max was quite far on the race line the other side.
“So I was just trying to go slow to stay out of the way, I see him all of a sudden come round and luckily I wasn’t close enough to him, I didn’t stop him going into the corner, and then I think he had a big snap on the exit.
“But yeah, we were in there. It’s practice, sometimes these things happen, it wasn’t intentional or anything like that.”