“For me it was a disaster of a race, a bit of a shocking race to be
honest, and another tough weekend,” said Hamilton, whose mistake in
missing out on a second timed qualifying run in the top-10 shoot-out further
undermined his performance.
“Clearly our car is fast enough to win, as Jenson proved with a
remarkable race, but I was nowhere near fast enough to compete with anyone. My
job, my hope, is to pick up some pace from somewhere, but I was just
struggling, I didn’t have any grip.
“I’m gobsmacked to be honest, but that’s the way it goes. We will work as
hard as we can to try and pick up the pace. I’m just going to keep my head
up, keep going, not give up, and hopefully in the next race I’ll have
another chance.”
Following a bust-up with Massa in the interview pen in Singapore a fortnight
ago after Hamilton ran into the Brazilian during the race, on this occasion
Hamilton was far more contrite.
“The only thing I have to say is that I can’t see anything out of my
mirrors, they vibrate so much down the straight, and I had no idea he was
there,” added Hamilton.
“Maybe that’s something we can fix so maybe it won’t happen again, but
apologies if we touched. It’s the same thing that happened, we always come
together. It was my fault, probably, but fortunately nothing happened.
“Honestly, it’s not intentional. I’ve much respect for Felipe, he is a
fantastic driver, he was very quick and I was very slow. I really have the
utmost respect for him, and I really hope we can avoid each other in the
future.”
At least Hamilton was also magnanimous enough to praise Button for his third
win of the season, and also Vettel on his place in F1‘s
history books.
“Big congratulations to Jenson who did a fantastic job for the team, and
of course to Sebastian for winning the championship, although we all knew it
was going to happen anyway,” said Hamilton.
“From Sebastian, it has been perfection this season. A fantastic
achievement and I’m very happy for him.
“Two-time world champion – that’s very impressive.”
Massa, though, refused to accept Hamilton’s explanation and, after their
fourth collision of the year, has asked the FIA to get tough with the
Briton.
“I don’t care what he says. I care about what the FIA says and does,”
said an angry Massa. “They have penalised people for much less this
year and this time they didn’t do it.
“After all the incidents this year the FIA needs to take care of that.
They are the only ones who can take care of that.”
Massa has suggested he may yet speak to FIA race director Charlie Whiting
about Hamilton’s on-track behaviour.
“Maybe if I see Charlie I will speak to him. But there’s nothing really
to say now,” added Massa.