Hamilton says he let McLaren down

Lewis Hamilton apologised to his McLaren team for letting them down after what the Briton said it was a disastrous Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hamilton, starting from fourth place, went on to finish in 13th position after a dismal opening lap.

The McLaren driver lost several places at the start after his anti-stall system kicked in following a mistake on his part.

“The anti-stall kicked in. Basically I hadn`t hit the switch early enough, and therefore we weren`t in the launch map, and then it went straight into anti-stall. Everyone else was then in their launch mode, and I wasn`t,” he explained.

When trying to recover, the Briton crashed into the back of Fernando Alonso, losing his front wing.

Hamilton felt he had let his team down, but vowed to move on and bounce back in the next race.

“It was a disaster,” Hamilton said after the race. “It was a very poor performance and I sort of let the team down today. It sort of went bad from the beginning, but I`ll keep my chin up and move on and bounce back in the next race.”

He added: “As a professional if you start off bad you need to sort of pick the pieces up and still deliver at least some points. I did none of that for the team.

“I had the crash with Fernando which really lost us the race altogether. I`m always the first to blame myself and I feel that`s the right way to go.”

Hamilton also played down suggestions that Alonso had brake-tested him when the two made contact.

“I have no idea. I was behind him I went to move to the right and he went to move to the right as well and I ended up on the back somehow. It`s racing,” he said.

The British driver dropped from first to third in the standings, just like his McLaren team, who are now behind BMW and Ferrari.

Hamilton, however, admitted he was not worried about the situation, as he reckons the team still have the pace to fight for wins.

“It`s not a huge concern for me, to be honest,” he added. “I think we`ve got the pace, and I know in the next race we will be quite a bit quicker than we were here this weekend. So the confidence is still there.

“It was inevitable that this was going to happen eventually. I had such a good run in Formula One and this is all part of it. But there`s still a long way to go. Don`t count me out just yet.”

6.4.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ Hamilton, McLaren    ▪ www.autosport.com