Hamilton says “l did everything l was supposed to do” after stunning turnaround in Melbourne let in Ferrari rival Vettel for victory. Lewis Hamilton admitted to being in “disbelief” after seeing victory in the Australian GP slip from his grasp, with Mercedes still unsure how Sebastian Vettel won F1’s season-opener. But Hamilton, in philosophical mood on Sunday night despite the disappointment of seeing his great Ferrari rival overtake him in the pits under a mid-race Virtual Safety Car, stressed there was no “dark cloud” hanging over Mercedes after the world champions’ impressive pace at 2018’s curtain-raiser. “I am in disbelief because l did everything l was supposed to do,” Hamilton said after finishing second.
“I drove as well as l could and l didn’t put a foot wrong.” Silver Arrows chief Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 immediately after the race that Mercedes suspected a computer glitch had caused them to miscalculate Hamilton’s vulnerability to any Virtual Safety Car while Vettel extended his opening stint. The VSC, which prescribes drivers’ speed on track but not in the pit lane, was deployed after the two Haas cars stopped on track in quick succession. Hamilton said Mercedes’ engineers were still working out exactly how Vettel was able to leapfrog him having run only third up to the pit stops.
“I don’t fully understand at the moment, they don’t still fully understand it still,” Hamilton told reporters. “They couldn’t give me an exact reason as to why it was the way it was. I can’t really say how I feel about it, but it’s never easy to lose a grand prix.” Hamilton held a 3.4-second lead over Kimi Raikkonen before the Finn made his pit stop on lap 17, and was 8.2s ahead of Vettel at the end of the next lap when Mercedes themselves pitted. In a bid to try and bring his race to life, Ferrari kept Vettel out to set up a shorter final stint but he was still only 11 seconds ahead of Hamilton at the end of the lap before he pitted.
Hamilton felt he had the tyre life to go faster had he needed to both before and after his pit stop, but stressed Mercedes should not feel too downbeat as “we’ve got a great car” and “can win the next race” in Bahrain on April 8. “In the race I had extra tools – I could have been further ahead by the first pit stop. I could have been further ahead after [the pit stop],” he explained.
