Lewis Hamilton was blasted by Yuki Tsunoda in a furious radio message during the Singapore Grand Prix free practice after angering the AlphaTauri driver. The Japanese was left fuming by the Mercedes star’s behaviour on track after the Briton appeared to block him while on a hot lap in the final practice session on Saturday at the Marina Bay street circuit.
In a rainy FP3 session on Saturday evening in Singapore, Tsunoda was approaching the Singapore Sling corner before heading into the chicane when he came across Hamilton, who was travelling at a slow speed in the middle of the corner.
With no way past and being forced the abort his lap, the 22-year-old – who is often a vocal presence on the team radio – lashed out at Hamilton for failing to get out of the way.
“What is he doing?! Honestly!” Tsunoda shouted on the radio, with his race engineer Mattia Spini responding to try and calm down his driver.
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Drivers are usually shown white flags by the race stewards to help signify that a car behind them is doing a faster lap, while advanced data allows engineers to communicate to them that they need to get out of the way.
The FIA frequently hands out three-place grid penalties if drivers are found to have endangered another car or forced them to slow down by failing to move aside. And while it is unclear whether Hamilton was told or knew Tsunoda was approaching, the 37-year-old is unlikely to face further punishment for blocking Tsunoda.
The session had been delayed by a red flag due to a heavy downpour of rain, making visiblity much more difficult for drivers. The nature of the Singapore track, a street circuit with 23 turns, also means it is difficult for drivers to check if there any faster cars behind them.
Hamilton endured a frustrating final practice session in the wet, having clocked the fastest time of anybody in FP1 in dry conditions and showed improved pace in the Mercedes on Friday.
The seven-time champion managed to punch in only eight laps in the entire session, the lowest total of all 20 drivers, as he struggled to get his tyres up to temperature.
His troubles were evident as he finished FP3 down in 12th place while George Russell was in P9. And it was only exacerbated for the Silver Arrows by the fact Hamilton was a huge 3.4 seconds off the pace of Charles Leclerc.
The Ferrari driver set the fastest time with a 1:57.7, some half a second quicker than championship leader Max Verstappen, with more misery expected if the rain comes down in qualifying.
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