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Hamilton Blames Himself for Monza Mistake

Lewis Hamilton took responsibility for the race incident he was involved in during the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix, when his McLaren MP4-25 sustained a broken suspension following a contact with Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.

The Brit managed a decent start on Sunday and was right behind Felipe Massa in 4th place at the first corner, when the 2008 F1 champion wanted to overtake the Brazilian on the inside of the chicane. The two made contact and Ham’s right wheel was touched, resulting in a broken suspension. A few hundreds of meters later, he had to park his car on the gravel and call it a day.

Although the mistake did not caused him very much damage in the overall classification – where he now sits in 2nd place, only 5 points behind Mark Webber – Ham agrees his mistake at Monza could cost him the world title. And that’s because from now on, the 5 remaining circuits in the calendar will clearly favor the characteristics of Red Bull’s RB5s.

It was clearly a mistake by myself, one of those things that happens when you're racing and you're pushing hard," admitted Hamilton when asked by the television crews what happened in that first lap.

I was trying to position the car in a certain way and I was too close to Massa and he clipped my wheel and damaged the car. Nothing I could do. It's not over, but it's days like this, and mistakes like I made today, that lose you world championships. I only have myself to blame,” added Ham.

His main title rival Mark Webber finished the Italian Grand Prix in 6th place, while Fernando Alonso won the Monza race, meaning he’s now 16 points behind the Brit.
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