Attempting to defend his latest mental error, a clearly annoyed Hamilton said:
”It is what it is.
”Jenson was in front of me and he slowed down to get his gap. I was coming up
to the last corner to make sure I had a gap between me and him. It wasn’t
that big.
”Just as I was coming into the chicane I looked in my mirror and I saw Mark
diving up the inside of me.
”Out of nowhere, he just shot up the inside and nearly crashed with me, so I
had to avoid him.
”And then I saw … I didn’t even see Michael as I gave Mark room, but he
nearly crashed on me on the left, so it was quite dangerous.
”I don’t know what the hell he was doing, but he went off onto the grass. It
was just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever experienced in qualifying.
“Certainly the two people across the line before me did some very strange
driving in that last corner.
”I really hope somebody finds the footage for what happened because it wasn’t
right and it stopped my last qualifying lap.”
Hamilton later offered: “It was my mistake. I should have got out sooner
but I was making a wing change and I went out too late.”
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh added: “Lewis is being a bit hard
on himself. We could have been explicit to him about time runningout.”
As for Webber, he believes Hamilton was in the wrong and he said: ”The team
were saying ‘come on, get on with it, we’re running out of time, we’re not
going to be able to start the lap’.
”Lewis tried to block, but I kept going. He didn’t want me to come past, but
I clumsily got through.”