Lewis Hamilton has declared the Austrian Grand Prix as the ‘worst weekend I can remember’ after the Mercedes driver retired from the race with a mechanical problem.
Hamilton had a good start, overtaking team-mate Valtteri Bottas into Turn 1, despite being split by a fast-starting Kimi Raikkonen who then went wide.
The race turned for the Mercedes driver when Bottas retired with a hydraulics failure on lap 15 of 71, bringing out the virtual safety car at which point everyone at the front apart from Hamilton pitted.
The decision not to pit was a strategy error by the team, openly declared by Mercedes chief strategist James Vowles over the radio who apologised to Hamilton for the mistake by saying, “Lewis I threw away the win today, but you’ve got the capability to overtake these guys.”
Coming out in fourth it wasn’t long before Sebastian Vettel overtook him, the Mercedes once again struggling with blistering tyres and had to make a second pitstop.
The day would end early as well for Hamilton though, the Mercedes also pulling over just 10 laps later to retire.
“We can’t throw away points,” a disappointed Hamilton said after the race.
“We’ve got to find a bulletproof method to move forward with our strategy because if our car was still going it was an easy win for us. We were comfortably ahead.
“Everyone in the team is feeling the pain today. We’ve had such great reliability for so many years. As painful as it is and we are professionals, we really have to take the rough with the smooth.
“This is definitely the worst weekend I can remember us having for a long time. But I have every confidence in my team that we’ll be able to bounce back.”
Due to the retirement, Hamilton has now lost his championship lead to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, trailing by a point heading to his home race at Silverstone next weekend. Mercedes has also conceded the lead in the constructors’ championship to Ferrari.
