10/04/2022
NEWS STORY
 Lewis Hamilton has clarified a comment he made to his team following his pit stop during today's Australian Grand Prix. |
Dropping to fourth after being passed by Sergio Perez on lap 10, the seven-time world champion ran ahead of his teammate George Russell until lap 22 when he made his pitstop.
However, a perfectly timed stop during the subsequent safety car period after Sebastian Vettel had spun off into the barriers allowed Russell to pit and rejoin ahead of his teammate just one lap later.
Now trailing his Mercedes teammate, Hamilton told his team: "You guys have really put me in a difficult position".
Some have taken this to mean that Hamilton was unhappy at finding himself behind his new teammate, however, the Briton says the comment was related to his car overheating.
"Basically, I couldn't race for position because the car was overheating, so I had to back off," Hamilton told reporters.
Asked to clarify that he was not referring to losing out to his teammate, he said no, insisting that his comment related purely to the fact that his "car was overheating".
"It's an amazing result for us as a team. It's such a positive," he added. "We were over one second off on Friday and it wasn't looking spectacular at that point. We did some great work overnight to qualify on the third row and then a great start. I was up in third and it felt great to be fighting, or to feel like we're fighting for a podium in that moment.
"Obviously we couldn't hold with the pace of the Red Bulls. Whilst we haven't necessarily improved the car over these three races, I think we've really extracted the most we could points-wise. From my side, I let the team down in the last race and didn't get the points but to come away with this result, is great.
"Whilst we haven't necessarily improved the car over these three races, I think we've really extracted the most we could points wise," he added. "I think from my side, I let the team down in the last race and didn't get the points but to come away with this result is great."
Asked about Russell's first podium for the team, he said: It is incredible," he said. "He's done an amazing job... he did an amazing job today, had great pace.
"He's been so solid these first three races. And he's working, really grafting away, doing an amazing job."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne, here.