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‘I’m not going to punish myself for a mistake’ - Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton says he isn’t going to beat himself up over his error that saw him hit the wall and eventually finish ninth in the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver was running fourth behind Carlos Sainz for much of the race but then locked up heavily into Turn 7, skidding straight into the barrier with the nose and damaging his front wing. While Hamilton only lost one position on track at the time he then had to make an extra pit stop that dropped him down to ninth, and later slid wide attacking Sebastian Vettel to lose a place to Max Verstappen.
“I knew it was all over from then, but these things happen,” Hamilton said of his crash. “I’m not going to punish myself for a mistake. It was very tricky conditions for everyone. The problems that we have with this car are magnified in the rain, when it’s wet, and it’s a very, very hard car to drive in the rain.”
Hamilton had already had light contact when losing third place to Sainz at the start of the race but says his radio message complaining he was pushed off-track was not a call for any punishment for the Spaniard.
“I was fine. It was racing … The only reason I mentioned it was because I didn’t want anyone to think I just drove off track, because there’s a bollard to the far right, but I was actually forced wide.
“A difficult start and then getting stuck behind Carlos. I don’t know why he was so slow but obviously I was not quick enough to get past him in these conditions.
“And then just sitting behind him. I think I could have done similar times to the guys ahead, but because I was stuck behind him I couldn’t. I think if I was in third, I could have kept with the guys up ahead.”
Despite the relatively low points’ return from a race where he was within 0.06s of pole position on Saturday, Hamilton says the overall pace of the car for spells are reasons for Mercedes to be encouraged.
“The car had its moments this weekend for sure where it was not too bad. It’s a bit hit and miss this car but for sure there’s positives to take away from this weekend. It’s just a shame not to get more points for the team. But we’ll take it.”
Presented by:
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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