Manama: Lewis Hamilton said he was “very chilled” about his fate after a second successive accident wrecked his hopes of turning pole position into victory in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
“Really, I am feeling very chilled,” he said when asked after the race about his championship prospects following two successive victories by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Rosberg has now won five successive races since Hamilton secured his third drivers’ title in Texas last year.
“I am not worried. I have had a great weekend and I am glad to have scored some points. Congratulations to Nico, I am sure he had an easy race today!”
After two races and two wins, Rosberg has 50 points and leads Hamilton, on 33, by 17, with 19 races remaining this year.
Hamilton’s hopes in Sunday’s race were wrecked when Finn Valtteri Bottas crashed into him at Turn One on the opening lap in his Williams. The Briton dropped to eighth with a a damaged car.
Bottas was given a drive-through penalty for the incident, as well as two penalty points.
Hamilton recovered to finish third, but said his car was too badly damaged for him to do any better.
“Obviously, I lost a lot of performance in the car,” said Hamilton, who finished third, 20 seconds behind Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.
“I had so much damage on the car I couldn’t keep up with Kimi. I did what I could with it. I was trying to keep the tyres.
“I am not sure what happened at Turn One - whoever was on the inside was in my blind spot and I didn’t see them, but it was a racing incident.
“I just don’t know what happened. We could keep going and I managed to continue and still had some performance in the car.”
Hamilton had made a poor start from his 51st pole position, just as he did from his 50th in Melbourne two weeks earlier.
“I don’t think there was a particular issue, it just wasn’t a good getaway... Nothing technical.”
He laughed when asked about his decision to arrive in the paddock on Sunday morning wearing full traditional Arab dress.
“It was just nice for me to do that because I have had such an enjoyable weekend here in Bahrain.”
Raikkonen too had recovered from a poor start to storm to second place and receive rare plaudits from his Ferrari team chief in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
“Kimi was spectacular, absolutely spectacular,” said Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene, for whom the Finn’s fighting effort was some consolation for the enforced non-start of team-mate Sebastian Vettel, due to engine failure.
Raikkonen was a distant second behind triumphant German Nico Rosberg of Mercedes, securing his eighth podium finish at the Bahrain International Circuit.
“If you look at his overtake around the outside of (Daniel) Ricciardo, he reminded me of a driver from the old times,” said Arrivabene. “For me, it was very, very good.”
Meanwhile, Stoffel Vandoorne made his point in more ways than one on Sunday when he marked his Formula One debut by finishing 10th at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old Belgian scored his and his McLaren Honda team’s first point of the new season in his maiden outing after stepping in to replace injured two-time champion Fernando Alonso.
