Lewis Hamilton exposes Mercedes after being left 'frustrated' with just six races left before departure
Lewis Hamilton has six races left with Mercedes
REUTERS
Lewis Hamilton held nothing back in admitting his frustration with Mercedes for putting him on soft tyres for the start of the Singapore Grand Prix.
Mercedes entered Sunday's race in a strong position with Hamilton and George Russell locking out the second row.
But they were unable to carry that momentum into race pace with Hamilton falling back down to sixth.
Part of the problem for Hamilton was his need to pit early on lap 17 with the team's choice to put him on softs backfiring.
Lewis Hamilton has six races left with Mercedes
REUTERS
That left Hamilton with a heavily degraded set of hard tyres in the latter stages that left him unable to climb back up the grid.
The 39-year-old appeared dejected after the race as he missed out on the chance of another podium finish.
And he took aim at Mercedes at an event earlier this week for not listening to his calls not to start on the softs.
“We sat in our meeting in the morning of the race – actually the night before they already mentioned that they would like to split the cars – and for me, I was a bit perplexed by it,” Hamilton said.
“In the past when we’ve been in that position, normally, if George has qualified well like he normally does that and I’m out of the top 10 or something then we will split the strategies.
“But when we were so close, it didn’t make sense to me.
“So I battled as hard as I could to fight to go on the medium tyre, but the team continued to suggest that I start on the soft.
“And then they took the tyre blankets off and everyone was on mediums.”
Lewis Hamilton was not happy about starting on the soft tyres
PA
He added: “Already from that moment I’m frustrated.
“Then I tried my best to keep up with the guys ahead, they were too fast. And then I just tried to make that tyre last as long as I could.
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Lewis Hamilton is ahead of George Russell in the Drivers' Championship
PA
“I had to [pit] on Lap 17. I knew from that moment that the race was done for me because the hard tyre was going to be a struggle in that heat.
“We’ve been struggling with the balance of the car all weekend, so we’ve been changing so many different things.
“We got a good qualifying, but unfortunately the race was a bit too much of a struggle for us.”
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