Lewis Hamilton Sheds Light on Interview Snub

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton cut a sorry figure in the podium room. He was gutted to miss out on a win, having given it his all.

Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be as he got punted to the back of the field by Kimi Raikkonen, just three corners into the race.

But Hamilton fought back with a display of overtaking that was almost inhuman. Eventually, he took second place behind Sebastian Vettel in the other Ferrari.

The huge setback resulted in an eight point deficit with more than half the season remaining.

Eagle-eyed viewers would notice that Hamilton studiously avoided Raikkonen but congratulated Vettel. The Finn came home third despite a 10-second penalty for the first lap incident.

The Mercedes driver also avoided the parc ferme interview with Sky commentator Martin Brundle to go straight to the warm-down area.

“I sweated my a*** off in that race. I gave it 1000 per cent and I didn’t have any energy at the end,” said Hamilton.

“People expect you to wave and smile, but I was having trouble standing up. I didn’t have much to give at that time and I needed to take a deep breath.

“Getting back to second is huge for us and I am happy with the drive. I was last but I still believed I could win and I had to keep that mentality to get back up there.

“This is the greatest race of the year and this is the greatest crowd so I’m sorry I could not bring it home for you.”

Interestingly, Mercedes opted to keep Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas out during the safety car. In the meantime, the Ferraris pitted, lifting them up to first and third.

But as tyre wear took its toll, Bottas was vulnerable as Vettel used his fresher tyres to seize the lead. Bottas also fell prey to Hamilton and Raikkonen and took the chequered flag in 4th.

Hamilton said: “It was 100 percent the right decision for me with the safety car. If I’d followed them in I’d have finished behind them.

“It was hard fighting guys with fresher tyres and in a perfect world I would have had brand new tyres but it wasn’t that kind of day for me.

“I just had a poor getaway, I was too aggressive and got wheel-spin then I just got a tap from behind from the Ferrari and that was that. But I will come back fighting.”