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British F1 racer Lewis Hamilton has downplayed unconfirmed media reports which suggested that he was angry and "furious" with Mercedes after both the parties apparently had a bit of a clash in the Turkish GP on Sunday.
Notably, while it was a rather cold start to the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix even as the circuit dried out slacks perhaps could not have been considered as was evident with Sebastian Vettel's lap of terror on the medium compound.
While Mercedes wanted Hamilton to pit, Hamilton who was eyeing for a track position and a final podium spot against rival Sergio Perez, wanted to go for the kill and attempt finishing the race without a change of tyres.
What was all the more interesting was the fact that his rival Max Verstappen was up the road maintaining P2, which might have further prompted Hamilton's desire of maintaining the highest position possible.
However, it wasn't how the Briton might have thought it to be as in lap number 51 of 58, which was some eight laps after he had ignored Mercedes' call to pit, he obliged to the team's request of a change in tyreage. When the racer rejoined the track and was at P5 behind Perez and Charles Leclerc, he expressed his displeasure and told his team that he should not have pitted.
This was in sharp contrast to the Mercedes' conviction who thought it impossible to complete the race without a pit.
Addressing the entire issue, Hamilton penned an elaborate explanation on the reports that he was furious with the team.
"I’ve seen some of the press this morning which has made a bit too much of the incident in yesterday’s race of when to pit," Hamilton wrote on Instagram.
Check out his Insta story here:
"It isn’t true to say I’m furious with my team," he added.
"As a team we work hard to build the best strategy possible but as the race progresses you have to make split decisions, there are so many factors constantly changing," he further wrote.
"Yesterday we took the risk to stay out hoping it would dry, it didn’t. I wanted to risk it and try and go to the end, but it was my call to stay out and it didn’t work. In the end we did pit and it was the safest thing to do. We live and we learn. We win and we lose as a team," he said.