Lewis Hamilton admitted his “heart sank” when he realised his Ferrari team had put him on the wrong tyre strategy at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The Ferrari driver, who started second on the grid, was on soft ‘slick’ tyres when the race eventually started after a 90-minute delay due to torrential wet weather in Sepang.
However, it soon became apparent that the correct tyre choice was the wet intermediates, with plenty of standing water still on the circuit and, as a result, Hamilton dropped more than one minute behind the leaders and down the order as he opted not to pit for fresh rubber.
Yet once the track eventually dried out, the seven-time F1 world champion worked his way back into contention and a late safety car gave him the opportunity to overtake Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and claim a well-earned third-place behind winner Max Verstappen and second-placed Kimi Antonelli.
Asked if he feels as if a win got away from him on Sunday, Hamilton told Sky Sports: “Yep! Mixed emotions. On one side: very grateful to get back on the podium. And the other side, with the [tyre] debate in the background, to see the covers come off ahead and they be on wets and the track was dangerous and tricky… my heart sank.”
“I thought: ‘we’ll stay out until this place bloody dries!’ We kept pushing; I didn’t think to get back to P3, we were over a minute down. But the team made a really good job on pit-stops, wish we had longer and more opportunities to get further ahead.
“The safety car was a blessing.”
It was Hamilton’s first podium finish since the British Grand Prix in July, though he still trails championship leader Antonelli – who now has an 86-point lead over George Russell after his unfortunate late retirement – by 106 points.
“Fundamentally, we have a great car and that’s down to an amazing group of people back to the factory,” Hamilton said, looking ahead to next week’s race in Singapore.
“We have been innovators this year but we’re down on power. We’ve got to catch up for next year, we’ll live with that deficit for this year.
“But the car is improving and we just keep trying. I’m enjoying the racing, still feel fit, today we got some good points.”
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