Hamilton: One of the worst races I've had

Things didn’t work for Mercedes this afternoon. Once again they had a poor start which allowed both Ferraris to get ahead, and Lewis Hamilton was shuffled down to 4th letting his team mate ahead. An accident with Daniel Ricciardo left Hamilton with a broken front wing, which he had to pit for,a nd then had to serve a penalty for the clash.

“That was a very tough afternoon,” said Hamilton. “The team did everything right and the car clearly had the pace – I just had a very bad day at the office.

“It was one of the worst races I think I’ve had and I don’t really have any explanation for it at the moment. All I can do is apologise to the team and work hard to make amends at the next race.

“My start wasn’t ideal and the Ferraris were really quick off the line, so suddenly I was under attack from both sides. It was tight with Nico later in the lap where I locked up and went off, then of course there was the incident with Daniel.

“It wasn’t deliberate but it was my fault. He took a tight line around the outside and I just lost grip, ran out of road and understeered into him. That meant a drive through which dropped me right back again after all that work to make it back through. From there I just had to tell myself to calm down and not give up so I could fight back for some points.

“You could see in that phase that the pace of the car was really strong and the pace was really there all weekend. I just made too many mistakes today. In the end, it’s damage limitation in terms of points for the Championship so I just need to take the positives into the summer and bounce back in Spa.”

Nico on the other hand had a better start, but swapped to the medium tyre at the first stop which was slower. He did the same at the second stop, but was hit from behind by Daniel Ricciardo at the first corner while he overtook. It was a similar swipe to what happened in Spa last year, but it gave him an instant puncture.

“I had a decent start, if not the best, ” said Nico. “But I still didn’t have a great balance on the option tyre so the Ferraris were pulling away quite quickly at the beginning.

“It went better on the prime and the race was going well for me until lap 64. Racing is very tough sometimes. It’s an awful feeling to lose it at the end. For me, the incident with Daniel was pretty clear. I was on the ideal line, he braked too late and went wide. I then stayed on the racing line, so it was my corner, but he still had his front wing there and hit me and I got a puncture.

“That destroyed my race, which is a real shame as I could have gained a lot of points on Lewis. At the moment I’m not looking forward to the summer break. I just want to be back in the car and racing again tomorrow.”

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