COME BACK FIGHTING
A
dejected Lewis Hamilton admitted on after the
Russian Grand Prix that he needs to rediscover
his speed after an abject display at Sochi saw
him fall further behind rival Sebastian Vettel in the
world championship title race.
As Hamilton toiled to fourth, his new Mercedes
team-mate Valtteri Bottas clinched the first victory
of his Formula 1 career at the 81st attempt and
became the third winner in just four races of this very
unpredictable season.
Bottas held his nerve in a nail-biting ending at the
Sochi Autodrome – with Vettel crossing the line just
0.6 seconds behind the Finnish driver – to move to
within 10 points of Hamilton, and in doing so, firmly
throw his crash helmet into the championship ring. But
as Bottas mastered the race from the outset – after
leaping from third to first in the 350 kph drag down to
turn two – a perplexed Hamilton could not keep pace
with the leading trio.
He has been mysteriously off colour all weekend
and struggled for balance throughout the race.
Hamilton, who also bemoaned an overheating engine
in a number of fractious radio messages with his
Mercedes team, limped home a bruising 36 seconds
behind Bottas. It was hard to recall a time where even
Nico Rosberg, the man whom Bottas replaced at
Mercedes, delivered such a devastating defeat.
“I can’t explain it right now, but we will do some
work over this week to fully understand it. It is not
important to think about the championship because
I need to understand where the speed was this
weekend, where I went wrong with the set-up, and
then come back fighting for the next race.”
“There is still a long way to go. I am still second in
the championship, so it is not the end of the world, but
I need to recover the pace I had previously because it
was a very, very unusual weekend,” mused Hamilton.