JULY 27, 2016

Doornbos sides with Hamilton over yellow flags

A former F1 driver has sided with world champion Lewis Hamilton over the yellow flag controversy of Hungary.

A former F1 driver has sided with world champion Lewis Hamilton over the yellow flag controversy of Hungary.

Many think Hamilton's stance against teammate Nico Rosberg not losing his pole position for ignoring yellow flags is akin to mind games.

But Robert Doornbos, a former Red Bull and Minardi driver, agrees with Hamilton that Rosberg "should never have started from pole position".

"Nico lifted and said it was 20kph slower but he can say what he wants, it was still a dangerous situation," the Dutchman told the Ziggo Sport Totaal broadcaster.

"Waved double yellows mean you should be able to stop, not improve your lap and certainly not set the fastest lap of the whole weekend," Doornbos insisted.

"So I totally agree with Lewis Hamilton that it gives the categories below F1 totally the wrong message."

The qualifying incident occurred before the actual race, which Doornbos says was "boring" apart from the battle between Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.

Raikkonen and Ferrari argued afterwards that Verstappen should have been penalised for blocking, but the 18-year-old Dutchman's countryman Doornbos thinks Max simply raced "hard but fair".

(GMM)