Hamilton thought his Bahrain GP was 'done' before podium fightback

Lewis Hamilton believed his race was over after he lost around a minute to the leaders by starting on the slick tire during the delayed Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

A 40-minute interruption to allow the FIA to implement a software change led to the track drying after heavy rain stopped, leading to confusion over which tire to start on. Both Ferrari drivers were on slicks while Red Bull and Mercedes stayed on intermediates, and Hamilton lost huge amount of time early on as the track was still too wet for a number of laps.

“What a tough race that was,” Hamilton said. “Obviously, we had the wrong call at the beginning, which was so difficult, and I could see everyone just pulling away. And as I could see on the screen, it was a minute down, and I thought that was kind of race over for us. But I just kept my head down.”

Hamilton praised his team’s pit stops and strategy from that stage, but explains why the call was made to start on slicks in the first place.

“Obviously, the rain came, the big panic with everyone when we all lost power,” he said. “And particularly, my power didn’t come back and I had to stop on track and restart the car. And then we all ended up in the pit lane. Thankfully, we all got back to our positions, but then after that there was such a long wait and we were debating on what tire to go on to.

“I said, ‘Look, there was a lot of spray on the laps to the grid.’ And I went into the pit lane, I looked at the ground, I was like, ‘It’s still wet.’ I went to the pit wall and I was like, ‘It’s still wet.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but because it’s been so long, it’s definitely going to dry up real quick and maybe we’re already in the crossover.’ So, anyway, as a team, we ended up taking that soft and when we were at the end of the pit lane and [Red Bull and Mercedes] took off their blankets and they’re on inters, we were in trouble.

“And as we pulled out, all the spray came out the back of Max’s car and I was like, ‘OK, I’m done. My race is really in trouble.’ [But] then we just had to stick with it. Like, we’ve made the decision and live with it. And I think then, through that, as everyone’s overtaken me, they’re like, 'We stop,’ because I know [a stop would cost] another 26 seconds. What’s the difference from that with one minute 40 or whatever I was down?

“So I was just, ‘Let’s just wait it out for the track to dry.’ And once it did, it felt good that I was catching people. The car felt great then after that. Really good pit stops from my guys in the garage and then good strategy. But for us to get back to the podium, I never thought that that was going to be the case. But, of course, I’m really, really grateful that we managed to get back here.”

Hamilton later joked he’s “not going to go to the casino with the guys” after telling Ferrari he had to gamble and stay on the slicks rather than pit, but he does believe the call stopped him fighting for victory given the pace he showed recovering to third place.

“We’ll definitely have an open dialogue” he said. “And I’m really so proud of my team. The mechanics every weekend, just the work they’re putting in, the engineers that accompany here every weekend, the catering, everyone really, really comes and gives it their best. Their heart’s all in the right spot.

“We’ve definitely got areas that we need to improve and we know that, and we’re not in any denial of that. So I think we’ll have a constructive chat, we’ll regroup, we’ll take the positives from this weekend, which the car was really good, and we’ll come back next week fighting. I thought [Sunday] was a chance for us potentially to try and fight Max for the win, but maybe we can do that next week.”