Lewis Hamilton Reassures He Allowed The Gap to Bottas in Australia

At the conclusion of the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, a thing was certain. Valtteri Bottas proved that he was no lame pushover and that, having passed Lewis Hamilton inside the opening lap itself, it was clear to everyone who the race winner was going to be.

But less than a week post the completion of the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has offered clarification on his gap to his race-winner teammate, Valtteri Bottas.

This is what you need to know.

According to Lewis Hamilton, who didn’t particularly perform that bad after all, having clinched second in the 58-lap contest, in order to overtake, one needs at least a 1.8-second delta to overtake the car in front. This, in the Briton’s case, was that of Valtteri Bottas.

But lest it is forgotten how challenging Hamilton’s predicament was at the Australian GP, the 2018 World Champion losing a part of the floor within seconds of the start, one cannot fathom Hamilton’s concern.

From the point that Bottas overtook his teammate, Hamilton’s main task, it is understood, concerned itself with taking care of his tyres. “So as soon as we got through turn one, it was really about managing,” exclaimed the famous English driver.

That told, one cannot also undermine the fact that, despite a damaged car, the videos and snaps of it available in plenty all over social media, perhaps what one cannot ignore is how well did Lewis hang on to a hard-fought second, never allowing the flying Dutchman Max Verstappen to pass the Mercedes.

While indeed race positions like a second or third aren’t really indicative of Hamilton’s actual talent, a fluent exhibition of which has earned him not one or two but five world titles, one cannot undermine the driver’s masterclass in defensive driving, which is what his craft toward the ending stage of the race fetched.

Even as he made no bones about the fact that “Valtteri had more pace in his car,” according to statements shared in the public domain, Lewis, who failed to covert a stellar pole into a race-win shared that, “I was planning to just stay close behind, two to three seconds.”

What’s already made the contest thrilling this year is the fact that Mercedes’ rivals like Red Bull have already made a strong start to the year, with Max clinching a deserving third. That said, what remains ahead of us at Bahrain? Will the Flying Fini in Valtteri be able to continue his midhas touch against Lewis or will ‘Britain’s national treasure bounce back to your working days?