Lewis Hamilton felt “conflicted” by his uninspiring drive in Monaco.
The championship leader found he couldn’t push to challenge Sebastian Vettel due to tyre graining.
“It’s just insane how little I was pushing, the least that I can ever remember,” he told journalists at the track. “Just trying to stop the fronts [tyres] from gaining and even when I did it, when I was not pushing, the tyre grained so it was just an unusual race where you weren’t pushing.
“I mean, I was 10 seconds behind [Vettel] and I was really conflicted – I am still in my heart – I still want to win this race, maybe something drastic is going to happen in the coming laps, so who knows. Maybe the genius strategists might pull something out of the bag.
“But they’re like ‘just bring it home, basically stay 10 seconds behind’ but in my heart I am like ‘I’ve got to close the gap because if I get close maybe, just maybe, something will happen and I will get one place’.
“So I am battling but on the same side I’ve got to drive bloody slow and make sure these tyres don’t fall apart or blow up or whatever it is.
“I’m conflicted and I don’t know if people watching get that passion because I love racing.”
Despite coming under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages of the race, Hamilton came home third, a result he was happy with considering Mercedes’ difficult weekend.
Finishing behind Vettel allowed the Ferrari driver to narrow the gap at the top of the championship order, but Hamilton said he was “grateful” it was just three points.
