Hamilton expecting a better weekend in Spain

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday he expects to be back up to speed in Spain this weekend after struggling for pace in Russia.

Hamilton expecting a better weekend in Spain

(Reuters)





The Briton had been unable to explain his "very odd weekend" in Sochi late last month, but sounded more confident on Thursday that his Mercedes team has resolved the issues.

"It was just a bunch of small things all added up in one pot," he told news conference at the Circuit de Catalunya, his pet bulldog Roscoe sleeping at his feet.

"Nothing in particular, no one single thing that was bigger than another, that just led us in slightly the wrong direction. It should be better this weekend.

"It’s a tyre issue in the sense that the tyre’s working range is quite small ... the whole weekend I generally wasn’t in the right window with it," he added.

Formula One has bigger and wider tyres this season, with different characteristics to last year's. Hamilton said all teams were learning each race how best to handle them.

"I think for some cars perhaps it works more immediately than for others. There’s different preparations," he said.

"It’s a new tyre which is exciting. They are very, very hard tyres so a hard, safe tyre basically. It’s going to be interesting this weekend to see how they work."

Hamilton finished fourth in Russia, ending a run of eight successive podiums, and dropped 13 points behind Ferrari's championship leader Sebastian Vettel.

The race was won by Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas, his first in Formula One after joining the team in January following 2016 champion Nico Rosberg's shock retirement.

Hamilton said the Finn's breakthrough victory came as no surprise.

"I’ve said from the beginning of the season that he was in competition, so it’s no surprise that he would eventually get a win," he said.

"But I was actually very happy. You saw at the end of the race I could at least be happy and share in the glory of the team beating the Ferraris and keeping us in the lead of the constructors’ championship.

"I was proud of what we had achieved – I just wish that I could have backed him up, in the sense of getting a one-two, but we can work on that maybe this weekend."





(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Richard Lough)


Share

3 min read

Published

Source: Reuters



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world