Hamilton Hits at McLaren Pit Strategy for Australian GP

Lewis Hamilton will certainly leave Melbourne later today with plenty of frustration on what happened during the course of this weekend. After getting in trouble with the Victorian police for careless driving – and having his car confiscated for 48 hours – and starting 11th on the grid, the Brit managed a magnificent recovery midway through the race and was on his way to a potential win at Albert Park.

Nevertheless, due to the fact that he was called to the McLaren garage for a second pit stop – while everybody in front of him opted for a single stop – he lost a huge amount of time to the two Ferraris driven by Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, and Renault’s Robert Kubica.

Although managing to catch up with the aforementioned drivers with 7 laps remaining, the Brit was unable to pass Alonso because his tires had worn off. Consequently, it made his 2nd pit stop useless, which he in fact communicated to his team via radio, with a few laps to go.

And if that weren’t enough, the Brit was pushed from behind by Mark Webber with two laps to go and ended up in the gravel. He eventually managed to get back to the track and finish the race in 6th place.

“To sum up the race I think I probably had one of the drives of my life and unfortunately, due to the strategy, I was put further back and then I got taken out by Mark Webber. I'm happy with the job that I did. I think I honestly drove my heart out today and I think I deserved better than what I ended up with, but I'll keep fighting to the next race,” said Ham after the race, in an interview with the BBC.

When asked who made the call for a second pit stop, Ham answered: “I don't know, we'll find out.” His teammate Jenson Button was kept on the track on a single set of slicks and eventually won the race.