The Red Bull crash hogged all the headlines, but a dice between another pair of high profile teammates in Turkey could also have spiralled into an intense controversy.<\/p>\n
While Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber spectacularly crashed, it is believed McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button actually clanged wheels when they also fought for first place at Istanbul Park.<\/p>\n
Television images of boss Martin Whitmarsh’s face captured the horror reaction of the all-British team that had effectively called off the fight for victory.<\/p>\n
Button and Hamilton’s engineers had told the pair they needed to save fuel.<\/p>\n
“Jenson is closing in on me, you guys,” Lewis Hamilton told his team via car-to-pit radio, according to the race review video posted at F1’s official website.<\/p>\n
Added the 2008 world champion: “If I back off, is Jenson going to pass me or not?”<\/p>\n
“No Lewis, no,” came engineer Andy Latham’s reply.<\/p>\n
Moreover, while Hamilton was set an actual minimum lap time target for his fuel-saving, Button was not.<\/p>\n
“They didn’t put a lap time on it.\u00a0 They just said you have got to save a bit of fuel,” Button confirmed.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Hamilton explained that it was his “slow” lap time target that allowed Button to mount his overtaking attack.<\/p>\n
“I was slowing down to keep that target and all of a sudden Jenson was right up my tail,” said the 25-year-old.\u00a0 “He just appeared from nowhere and he was up my tail and there was nothing I could do.”<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Hamilton re-passed Button after a five-corner battle and won the race, but on the podium his celebrations were restrained.<\/p>\n
In the week since the race, McLaren has released interviews with both Button and Hamilton that depict the clash as fair racing.<\/p>\n
“It was tricky in those closing laps, because we knew we were pretty marginal on fuel, but the team lets us race and that’s exactly what we did,” said Button.<\/p>\n
Hamilton denied that the incident soured his twelfth career win.<\/p>\n
“Not at all, I think it added to the win if anything.<\/p>\n
“I am looking forward to many more races like that where we have fun, hard battles yet fair in our race to the championship,” he insisted.<\/p>\n
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