Lewis Hamilton: Valtteri Bottas deserved to win in Azerbaijan
- Published
- comments
"It just blew up on its own!" Bottas was devastated over the team radio to be out of the race
Lewis Hamilton said Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas deserved to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hamilton won the race and took the title lead for the first time this year after the Finn suffered a puncture.
The Englishman said: "He has been driving exceptionally well and he did the better job and deserved the win but circumstances prevented that.
"I have to be grateful on one side. I will take it and harness it and try to propel it forwards to the next race."
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel dominated the race until a gamble by Mercedes on a late safety car paid off and Bottas was able to make a late pit stop and take the lead.
Vettel then threw away second place when he went wide trying to pass Bottas at the re-start, allowing Hamilton into second place, and the Briton inherited the lead when Bottas ran over some debris less than a lap later.
It was a first win for Hamilton this year and came after a difficult run of races in which he has struggled for form.
The world champion had chased Vettel in the early part of the race but not quite been able to keep up and then seemingly lost his hopes of victory when he locked a wheel and ran wide in Turn One, forcing him to make an earlier than planned pit stop.
Hamilton said he had "mixed emotions".
"It is a day I am grateful for and I honestly don't feel I'm not at my best, I am just really struggling with the car," Hamilton said.
"That brings the ultimate performance down and I have to work hard to try to understand that. It is not like I have never been there before. There was a crucial point where the win was up for grabs and Sebastian made a mistake and I am really grateful I was able to get by him."
He added: "There were a lot of faults in the race, which is rare for me.
"But I struggled with the car, struggled with the tyres and that's something I don't take lightly. So I've definitely got to go away from here and work even harder to make sure that there's not a repeat performance-wise."
Hamilton is now four points clear of Sebastian Vettel at the top of the drivers' championship
Vettel finished fourth and is four points behind Hamilton in the championship.
The German said: "Without the (final) safety car it would have been a different race. We had a decent restart. I saw a gap on then inside and unfortunately I locked up.
"Without the lock-up, I make the first corner and it looks like a good move. I had to try, I tried and it didn't work.
"I got caught out with the bump and the front locking. But I don't want to blame that. In the end I am captain on board and it just didn't work. I can't let one and half to two seconds of the race have a shame on all the race because there were a lot of positives.
"The most important thing is we have a good car, a car we can work with in qualifying. If we put it in the front, we can fight for wins.
"I am not worried at all because it is quite different to last year when in qualifying we were not competitive enough for most of the year and then later in the year we were not competitive enough to make things happen. The car is there and we need to make sure it stays there."
- Published28 April 2018
