Ferrari misjudgment in late swap leaves Hamilton ahead of Leclerc in Baku

Lewis Hamilton crossed the line in eighth place ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday after a late-race order to swap positions was not executed as planned, leaving Ferrari with an unintended intra-team dispute and prompting swift reaction from drivers, team officials and pundits. The switch was called on the final straight in Baku after Ferrari had earlier instructed Leclerc to let Hamilton by so the Briton, on fresher tyres, could try to attack cars ahead.

Ferrari had hoped the temporary repositioning would allow Hamilton to chase Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. When that move failed, the team radioed Hamilton to yield the place back to Leclerc before the chequered flag. Hamilton eased and moved off the racing line but still crossed the line about four tenths of a second ahead of Leclerc. Hamilton apologised after the race, calling the incident a misjudgment and saying he had been "zoned in" on the car ahead and received the swap message late. "I did lift on the straight and did actually brake, but he missed it by like four tenths. That was just a misjudgment by myself. I'll apologise to Charles," Hamilton said.