Lewis Hamilton has admitted that although he is disappointed to only have finished fifth in today’s Singapore Grand Prix, he is unsure what more he or Mercedes could have done to make it onto the podium.
Having started P5, Hamilton made a poor start and was eventually caught out by a safety car period which forced him into fighting back through the field in order to salvage ten points from the weekend. In his eyes, most of the damage was done in qualifying.
“The car felt good tonight but unfortunately we paid the price for not qualifying further ahead yesterday,” Hamilton said. “I didn’t have the best start and had to go wide to avoid Mark at turn one. From there, it was difficult to follow the race and my position.”
Hamilton conceded that the safety car’s appearance did hamper his chances of making the podium, but he does not believe that he could have made the ‘correct’ strategy – pitting during the stoppage – work like podium finishers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Instead, he was forced to pit later on and then recover the positions on track.
“Whilst the timing of the safety car definitely didn’t help us, we need to go back through our strategy and see what we could possibly have done differently in that situation. I’m not sure we could have done what Fernando and Kimi did by staying out on that set of tires for so long, though.”
Making no secret of his disappointment, Hamilton was insistent that the team would bounce back in the final six races.
“Of course, it’s a little disappointing to come away with only fifth place but I gave it my all out there and we’ll come back stronger. Our aim is to get back ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ championship and see if we can get another win before the end of the season.”
