Lewis Hamilton admitted that he felt bored during Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix due to the lack of overtaking opportunities afforded by the Interlagos circuit.
Hamilton spent all but three laps of the race running in second position behind teammate Nico Rosberg as he struggled to mount a challenge to the German driver in Brazil.
Early on, Hamilton closed to within 0.3 seconds of Rosberg, but could not follow closely due to the loss of downforce when running in the dirty air of the Mercedes ahead.
Speaking on the podium after the race, Hamilton was adamant that he had the pace to match Rosberg in the race, but that the lack of overtaking opportunities meant he could not attempt to pass for the lead.
“I had good pace, it’s just you can’t overtake here,” Hamilton said. “I was behind Nico and in traffic for some time, so I just killed my tires. It’s a shame because it’s such a great track but you can’t get close enough in the race.
“I don’t know if there’s other people overtaking, but unless you’ve got a huge advantage on the car in front… Motorsport is about fine line, that tenth of a second, but you can’t get close enough within that tenth of a second to fight. It’s a shame, because it would be good if we could do some overtaking here.”
Hamilton had asked Mercedes to switch him to a different strategy so that he could try and pass Rosberg, only to be refused by team’s strategists.
“I’m here to race, and when you have to do the same [strategy] it’s kind of set from the beginning,” Hamilton said.
“For sure, if there’s any other strategies, let’s do it, let’s take a risk, let’s do whatever, they’re like ‘look after the tyres’, I’m like ‘no I’m racing!’
“I think that’s what people want to see, but unfortunately today as I say I couldn’t get close enough to be able to put on a great race. It was relatively boring following in a tow.”
Hamilton did take a moment to praise race-winner Rosberg following his second straight win and recent upturn in form.
“Yeah, Nico’s been driving fantastically well,” Hamilton said. “He’s been doing a fantastic job in qualifying, particularly the last few races. Last race he drove fantastically well, today no mistakes, so he’s doing good.”