Lewis Hamilton
Dejected Lewis Hamilton said he does not exist to finish second after a some mistakes in Bahrain allowed Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to get ahead in this year’s championship fight.
Britain’s triple world champ owned up to the pit-lane blunder which saw him illegally block Daniel Ricciardo and take a five-second penalty and a poor start which allowed the German to sneak through at Turn One. He also rued a problem with his car in qualifying which he believes cost him pole position.
Hamilton said: “Over the years, nothing changes. I feel pain in my heart. People will be like ‘you finished second, you should be happy’, but that’s not why we exist. I lost two-tenths of a second from Turn 10 to 11 in qualifying because the DRS did not engage. I should’ve been on pole. Then, I lost position at the start. Solely my fault. Then you get the time lost in the pit lane.
“You practise, and practise, and practise, and you only have 20 opportunities and when you f*** it up, man, it is painful. I try to handle it but it eats you up a little inside so you have got to cope with it and move forward.”