Lewis Hamilton has classed his coming-together with former team-mate
Fernando Alonso in the Bahrain Grand Prix – a clash that arguably cost the Briton the drivers' world championship lead – as ‘a racing incident', though the Spaniard curiously chose to stay silent on the matter.
The accident happened on lap two of the race, after Hamilton had lost a whole seven positions with a fumbled getaway when the lights went out. Battling his way back up the field again, the McLaren-Mercedes ace slammed into the back of his
Renault rival exiting one of the circuit's slow corners, causing his front wing to fly off – necessitating an unscheduled early pit-stop – and leaving Alonso with a chunk missing out of his rear wing.
“I am really disappointed and feel like I let the team down today,” Hamilton rued afterwards, holding his hand up to the mistake that saw him bog down at the start. “I am always am the first to blame myself. The whole weekend has not been ideal starting with the accident on Friday, but I will keep my chin up and bounce back at the next race.
“I messed up at the start as I didn't hit the switch early enough, and therefore hadn't engaged the correct engine setting and the anti-stall kicked in. I lost a lot of places, but things were still salvageable at that point. Then I had the incident with Fernando. I was behind him, I moved to the right and he moved to the right and that was it – a racing incident I guess.
“I am confident that we have the pace to be fighting at the front, so the confidence is still there. I have had such a good run in
Formula 1 until now, and it was almost inevitable that at some point things would go wrong. However there is a long way to go in the championship, and I intend to win it.”
McLaren made the choice to switch the erstwhile world championship leader across to a one-stopper for the remainder of the grand prix in an effort to make up some ground, but the 23-year-old's pace never truly recovered and he eventually trailed home a distant and unlucky 13th, after being lapped by both Ferraris before the chequered flag.
