Perez said: “Yesterday, when I hit the wall in qualifying, I was very frustrated with myself, but the team did a great job to fix the vehicle”.
Advertisement
Hamilton finished a disappointing fifth after suffering a power loss problem mid-race in his Mercedes, while Nico Hulkenberg was ninth in the second Force India, and Carlos Sainz Jr. and Daniil Kvyat were both race retirements with their Bicester-based Toro Rosso-Ferrari cars. “But it was a pretty straightforward afternoon for me at the front.” .
“I think when you have a vehicle as good as the Mercedes is today, it’s easy to fall into a trap”, Alesi said.
While the middling finish lost him fifteen points to championship rival Nico Rosberg, the once-massive gap between the two is still just 24 points, and if Hamilton were to win and Rosberg were to retire in the next race, Hamilton would take the championship lead immediately. “I don’t know, I’m looking at my fricking dash every five seconds trying to find the switch in the wrong position”. Obviously at that point with a lot of laps to go we didn’t know how quick Lewis will be and how much him and Checo would be able to catch up so it has priority to make sure that we ran away.
“It s not that I m complaining”. It is the same for everybody and I think Ferrari had a similar issue. His teammate Nico Rosberg won the competition earning 25 points which give him the lead over Hamilton with a comfortable 24-point lead.
Mercedes: “Lewis, it’s nothing you’re doing wrong, just got a setting that’s incorrect”.
“It was a special feeling out there in the auto because it felt like I could do whatever I wanted”, Rosberg said.
The problem was first reported via team radio ahead of lap 30 and it was not until lap 42 that Hamilton resolved the issue – seeing him lap over a second faster. The team started with something switched on, so I had it from the beginning. Formula One is so technical – it’s far too technical nearly – and to have that many switch positions, it’s something that you should be able to rectify because the only people that can see the issue are the guys in the garage.
He said the problems cost Hamilton at least two-tenths of a second per lap.
Advertisement
“I don t think it s down to homework”. The Mercedes driver has suffered a mid-race reliability hiccup when his engine failed to deliver full power for several laps, just as he was challenging Force India’s Sergio Perez for Pole position. Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein went out on brake problems with 10 laps remaining in the race. “I thought about it and figured that that was the one”.
