Lewis Hamilton seething over costly team error that cost him victory in Australian Grand Prix
Defending champion was told a 12-second gap would be sufficient over Sebastian Vettel when he headed for a pit stop during a virtual-safety-car period
LEWIS HAMILTON was left seething with his team after they blew his chance of winning the Australian Grand Prix.
Mercedes staff got their sums wrong and the Brit was leapfrogged by Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari, which made a pit stop during a virtual-safety-car period.
Hamilton said: “I wish it was more in my hands.”
He had been told to maintain a 12-second lead over Vettel — but the reality is they needed a 15-second gap to cover the threat of the German.
Hamilton had turned down the power on his 1,000bhp car to save the life of his engine.
He said: “I did everything I was supposed to do. I was coming down the straight and all of a sudden I was told the Ferrari was coming out.
“I didn’t even know the Ferrari was in. It was just disbelief. The team don’t fully understand it at the moment. They couldn’t give me the exact reason as to why it was the way it was.
“It is never easy to lose a grand prix. I had extra tools, so I could have been further ahead by the first pit stop. There were so many good things we could have done.
F1RED Australian Grand Prix 2018: F1 in graphics cock-up as ‘Lastname’ battles ‘Lastname’, sparking hilarious Twitter reaction
“It is a team effort but you’re relying on so much technology to come out with the right strategy.
“I wish it was more in my hands because I feel like I drove as good as ever. Everyone in the team is feeling it.”
The gaffe happened on lap 26 when the virtual safety car was activated after Romain Grosjean stopped on the track.
The VSC limits the speed of cars, so made it impossible for Hamilton to make up the time.
Merc boss Toto Wolff felt his team HAD built up a sufficient gap over Vettel until he saw him on TV coming out of the pits.
most read in Motorsport
He said: “It’s very hard to take because we had the pace. We need to find out how we lost the win.
“We thought we had about three seconds’ margin. We need to ask the computer, so that’s what we are doing.
“We need to find out whether we have a software problem somewhere.”