Hamilton GP to forget, malaise and excuses 'a hard lesson'

Grand prix to forget, from third to sixth with a slight illness at the end and an apology to Ferrari and the fans.

Lewis Hamilton, thanks to a wrong choice, remains off the podium, however taking full responsibility for the mistake made on the track. "We didn't get the result we wanted and the responsibility is mine - says the British champion, who had missed the post-race press conferences due to feeling unwell also due to the suffocating heat on the Marina Bay circuit -. On a track where it is difficult to overtake you have to try something different and I chose to start with a new Medium tyre, extending the first stint to try to complete the race with just one stop. Unfortunately, however, the Medium did not work as well as the Soft. During the Virtual Safety Car the team called me back to the pits, but I missed the entrance to the pit lane. At that point I decided to stay on the track and try to maintain the position until the end, but in the final laps I suffered a lot from tire degradation and lost three positions, finishing sixth, a result that does not reflect the car's potential today."

And so he found himself behind the McLarens of Piastri and Norris. "It's a hard lesson to learn, but I take full responsibility for the decisions I make. The choices we make don't always give the expected results and I recognize that I was wrong - underlines Hamilton -, even if I feel sorry for the team and for the points left along the way. I would have liked to repay the team with a better result. I will continue to give my all: I can't wait to get back to fighting from the next race".

Ferrari's analysis points to the glass being half full, even if the Englishman's mistake does not go unnoticed. "Overall it was a positive weekend: we took second and third place in the Sprint, second and third place in qualifying and Charles finished second again, with Lewis coming very close to the podium - the words of team principal Fred Vasseur -. Verstappen had a little more pace than us throughout the weekend, and this means that we still have some work to do to close the gap. However, the team delivered a solid performance and collected important points. From a strategic point of view, everyone approached the race with very little information on the behavior of the tires. When the virtual safety car arrived we called both cars to the pits while they were in second and third place. Unfortunately, Lewis missed the entrance to the pit lane and this probably cost him the chance to fight for the podium. We must avoid situations like this from happening again.