Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said he was confused by his absence of pace in the Russian Grand Prix. Hamilton attempted to fourth behind the Ferraris of title pioneer Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen while team-mate Valtteri Bottas took a lady win.
Hamilton said: “Big congratulations to Valtteri. Fantastic job and he deserves the win. He has been fast all weekend.
“For me, just a very, very odd weekend. I am just hopeful in the next races I will be able to pick up the pace.” Bottas’ win guaranteed the harm to Hamilton in the title was restricted however much as could be expected – Vettel now leads by 13 focuses yet it would have been 20 had the German won the race. “It’s great we are ahead of the Ferraris,” the Briton said. “It has stopped Sebastian pulling away too far.”
Hamilton was the greater part a moment slower than Bottas in qualifying and as the Finn made a rankling begin from third and led the pack at the principal corner, Hamilton did not make ground from fourth on the network.
The 32-year-old endured overheating issues as he pursued Raikkonen in the primary spell of the race and dropped back over the pit-stop period to complete 25 seconds behind the Finn and 36 behind Bottas.
“I don’t the last time we had that [overheating],” Hamilton said. “It meant I was out of the race from the get-go.
“I think I had the pace to fight with Kimi but the car was just overheating the whole the time. I’m sure we will go back to the drawing board and figure it out.”
He added: “I always knew I could get good results if everything goes right and I always trust in my ability. But it’s nice to get confirmation that the results are possible.
“It took quite a while, more than 80 races for me, but it’s definitely worth the wait. This strange opportunity came to me in the winter to the team and they made it possible, so I want to thank them.”
