Lewis Hamilton has apologised to Mercedes for two mistakes he made in the Qatar Grand Prix as he ended up finishing 12th.
The British racing superstar has struggled to find his best form in recent weeks as his Mercedes career nears its end.
He was off the pace in qualifying and things went from bad to worse in Sunday’s race when he false started.
That saw Hamilton fall down the pecking order and halfway through the race he picked up a puncture.
Lewis Hamilton had a race to forget in Qatar
REUTERS
The final straw came when Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Hamilton pleaded with his race engineer to ‘retire the car’ towards the end of the race, attempting to end his Grand Prix early.
The F1 veteran was able to raise a wry smile after the race before apologising to the team for his two costly errors.
“It just didn’t really go that great but these things happen,” Hamilton said.
“Don’t judge me by how many times I fall but I’m going to get up tomorrow and give it another go.
“The car and I don’t get along really that well.
“But we were very, very far off in the beginning and we didn’t have enough wing in to start with, the cars were quite different and it wasn’t really great to drive.
“But my fault today so apologises to the team for the false start and then the pit-lane incident.”
Lewis Hamilton will move to Ferrari in 2025REUTERS
“The car and I don’t get along really that well. “But we were very, very far off in the beginning and we didn’t have enough wing in to start with, the cars were quite different and it wasn’t really great to drive.
“But my fault today so apologises to the team for the false start and then the pit-lane incident.”
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Lewis Hamilton has not enjoyed this Mercedes car in recent months
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“I’m not thinking about it honestly,” he added.
“Even if it finishes like this weekend, that doesn’t define the journey we’ve been on and the journey that we’ve had.
“But I’ll give it everything I can.”