Hamilton: Damp track didn’t cause poor start

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton says his poor start in the Japanese Grand Prix wasn’t caused by the dampness near his starting position.

“I don’t think the damp patch had anything to do with it,” he said after the race. “I made a mistake.”

2016 Japanese Grand Prix in pictures
“And then just working my way up from there was tricky but I did the best I could.”

Hamilton fell from second on the grid to eighth on the first lap but fought his way back through the field to finish third. However Nico Rosberg won, extending his lead at the top of the championship standings to 33 points. “It’s a healthy margin,” said Hamilton. “Nico did a great job so congrats to him.”

Hamilton also paid tribute to his Mercedes team who clinched the constructors’ championship in today’s race.

“I want to say congratulations to the team,” he said. “Incredible success for the last three years, very proud to be a part of it.”

“A big thank you to everyone for all their hard work, It’s a great result.”

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    20 comments on “Hamilton: Damp track didn’t cause poor start”

    1. I don’t believe and have never believed that apart from Monaco or Singapore, that races could be decided on the start. Every race has been probably decided on the start.

    2. sunny stivala
      9th October 2016, 8:07

      No it didn’t, it was a waste of time Rosberg ordering one of his mechanics to pee on your grid slot, this time the Laouder and the Totonator didn’t gave you a bad clutch, neither did they dropped any bolts down your engine intake, but they screwed up your throttle pedal.

    3. Poor luck and bad starts ,even through some starts were not because of his fault taken Hamilton in to such a difficult position.everything is going against him now.it will be one of the major upsets of the year if Hamilton loses world title.

      1. actually if you watched the whole of this season you will notice that the only thing keeping Lewis from leading in the championship is his starts and poor reliability. If you rewatch 2014, there is a very similar theme, last year it had more to do with the tire pressures and how Lewis himself said there was some sort of ‘balance change’ with the car that didn’t suite him very well.

        There are reasons for why he is suffering, but the peeps covering this crud, who get paid to sell people a story, will only go on about luck, and conspiracy, and stuff that cannot be proven in order to get clicks, obfuscate and push the drama.

        Me personally, I am pretty much done with this stuff, Hamilton’s reliability is the only thing allowing him to win or lose in F1 these days. It’s not a sport, its manufactured nonsense.

        1. @xsavior
          “Hamilton’s reliability is the only thing allowing him to win or lose in F1 these days. It’s not a sport, its manufactured nonsense.”

          You serious? F1 is a mechanical sport, engine failures are a part of it. Yes Hamilton hasn’t had the best of luck in that regard this season but to say it’s manufactured nonsense is frankly the same as saying Mercedes wants Rosberg to win the championship and are sabotaging Hamilton to achieve that. Which is nonsense.

          Also, would you have said this if it was Rosberg who suffered mechanical failures and bad starts? I doubt it.

        2. Didnt Webber suffer similarly at Red Bull over his time there. Yet you continued watching.

          1. @Brum People are allowed to watch and enjoy ‘manufactured sports’, one company makes billions out of it. The WWE. F1 with its gimmicks, constant rule changes, weird penalty handouts, etc looks like WWE on wheels. Bernie often refers to F1 as ‘the show’ and ‘the show’ must be improved. A sport is equal it all entrants, you don’t get preferential treatment because of history in real sports. F1 is an entertainment, not a sport.

      2. Not poor luck but manufactured bad luck! Lewis had his mechanics taken off him and given to rosburg! Question is. Why! The mercedes team made no secret of wanting a German champion Lewis was screwd by them such a shame but when rosburg wins the championship he will not be a worthy winner more will he have an it on merit! No doubt the we love rosburg brigade will slate me for this but I am just saying what a lot of fans are thinking 😥
        😉

        1. By this ridiculous argument then, the only reason Hamilton won the last two championships is because he had these mechanics, so Rosberg has been hard done by the last two seasons. Though of course that’s not what you’re trying to say, but you’d like to use these ludicrous arguments in order to deligitimise Rosberg’s championship efforts without having to follow your arguments through to their logical conclusions. Unless of course you’re suggesting that people within the team are now purposefully sabotaging Hamilton, in which case there’s little point in trying to engage with you at all.

          Over the course of their time together at Mercedes, Hamilton has on average tended to have the measure of Rosberg and that has reflected in the championships in the last two seasons. However, the current state of the championship is due to numerous factors, among them Rosberg raising his game and Hamilton having some bad luck. Sometimes that luck is going to be the deciding factor when you have two extremely talented drivers racing against each other, but these continued attempts to disparage Rosberg come off as poorly thought through pettiness at best and outright delusional conspiracy theories at worst.

          1. Hi interesting theory you put forward but you fail to give a reason as to why the mechanics were changed this is to me a chance to give rosburg a better chance and yes mechanics do have a hand on how good a car is to me rosburg has not raised his game! Mercedes raised it for him by using Hamilton’s data for him and coaching him around the circuits all this is known facts plus wolf and lauda made no secret of the fact they wanted a German champion at any cost you also do not address the fact that they have favoured rosburg all season, you can not ignore the fact that out of eight Mercedes engines on the grid only Hamilton’s kept going wrong, can you answer that! As for talent Hamilton leaves rosburg standing, rosburg is an average driver with a great car, Alonso or Ricardo would have been miles ahead in this car, so please l am not deluded as to what has gone on but l base my theory on facts

          2. A very simple answer to you is why if rosburg is the great driver you claim him to be!!!!!! Does he need Hamilton’s mechanics and Hamilton’s data to win races!!!! I rest. My case😂

    4. Later, he will “reveal” that he only said that to ease pressure on race organizers.

    5. As I’ve mentioned, assuming that the starts are good and reliability is there Ham has a chance, 4 races to go, 33 point gap, it’s Rosberg’s title to lose.

      Fair play to Ham holding his hand up for acknowledging his mistake, which he is fairly consistent with doing.

      I just wonder if and when Rosberg wins his first WDC will it be on merit or luck or possibly both?

      1. Does anybody remember where Mercedes was before Hamilton? & how he outdrove Nico (who the car was basically tailor made for) from the minute he sat in the car? & the lengths that the team went to do analyse, condense & compile data about Hamilton’s driving so as to give Rosberg a manual on how exactly to do it? How about them breaking up the double championship winning team of Lewis & his mechanics & giving them to Nico? And how the FIA had to change the rules on driver coaching because of the constant two way between Rosberg & his pit wall, detailing the minutiae of Hamilton’s advantage over him? and how said FIA purposefully screwed with the start procedure/clutches & junk to make Mercs starts more “random” (Lewis has suffered more from these “random” bad starts)? Finally, Mercedes have now taken the car down a development path that the driver who sucks in the wet, and has always had to copy & study & learn how to get the best from the package from his teammates telemetry now has a leg up because the car suits him more. I honestly wonder how many of us would be able to sit quietly wondering, & feeling like they’d been treated fairly after enduring all this… & let’s all the one sided reliability (or lack thereof) that’s repeatedly only afflicting your car out of eight…

        1. * “& let’s NOT FORGET… the one sided reliability…”

        2. So what you’re saying is Lewis can’t win unless the car is developed around him?

          1. Brother do you even know reading comprehension?@the duke

    6. Humble comments from Hamilton after a weekend of tantrums, hissy fits and toy throwing. Those Mercedes execs must have gave him a good wrist slapping and put him back in line.

    7. Maybe the start caught him snapchatting???

      1. Haha nice one

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