The result may be one thing, but the performance was another as the
27-year-old Briton came within 0.6 secs of a place on the podium.
A woeful start, described by Hamilton as “a disaster, brutal, terrible”,
let him down and left him searching for answers from his team.
Hamilton said: “I asked the team ‘please tell me what I’m doing wrong so
I can fix it?’.
“But they’ve said I’m doing everything right, that it was perfect, so I
don’t know. It’s something we’re going to have to investigate.”
It resulted in a phenomenal first-lap tussle between himself, team-mate Jenson
Button and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso at the end of which Hamilton dropped
from third to fifth.
Further issues with the soft-compound tyre and his steering wheel which
encountered a downshift failure did not aid his cause, the latter changed
along with his tyres in his only pit stop that took just 3.6 secs.
But once on the harder tyre in the second half of the 60-lap race, Hamilton
and Button were consistently quick, the latter setting the fastest lap on
the final lap.
“It was a very tough race, but a great race. Within the car it felt
great,” said Hamilton.
“It was fantastic at the end. Every second I thought I could catch Mark.
You have to believe, and that’s why you push.
“But I just wasn’t close enough. It’s such a shame we didn’t have the
ultimate pace at the beginning to really challenge the guys in front.
“But I feel proud of myself and proud of the guys.”
For Button, after winning the battle of the champions on the first lap, it was
not long before he was passed by first Alonso and then Hamilton, dropping to
fifth which is where he eventually finished.
“I’ve never had the start of a race like that before,” said Button.
“It was a good clean fight, millimetres between us through the first few
corners and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to fight like that and come out
on top as well.
“But then I just didn’t have the pace and they both came past me. The
whole first stint was pretty poor.
“Then when we put the hard tyre on, the car felt really good, but I
found it very difficult to get past (Romain) Grosjean.
“I lost so much time behind him, and that was my race over for a better
position.
“So the first and last laps were great. It’s just a shame about all the
others in the middle.”