Lewis Hamilton has shed light on the myriad of challenges that hindered his ability to advance from ninth position at the starting grid during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Opting to prioritize a race-oriented setup over qualifying speed, the Mercedes competitor managed to secure a seventh-place finish, despite confronting several technical difficulties throughout the 57-lap race at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Hamilton reported experiencing depleted battery power and a malfunctioning seat, alongside having to adhere to car-cooling directives issued by his team, which collectively impeded his performance during the event.
“For a while my battery was dead, so down the straights, I was just derating so I lost a lot of ground on the McLarens,” the seven-time champion told media after the race.
“I was fixing that for some laps – that took a good 10 laps and then after that I was just really trying to get back on it and catch up once we got that fixed.
“Then there was a bit of overheating with the brakes, but generally the performance was so-so.”
The seven-time world champion during race voiced out on the team radio regarding his seat being broken.
Hamilton commenting on his broken seat post-race said: “My seat starting moving, my left side dropped and so it was moving through the braking zones.”
Despite facing initial setbacks, Hamilton demonstrated a competitive pace towards the race’s conclusion, closely matching the performance of his rivals.
However, he fell short in his pursuit of McLaren’s Lando Norris, not managing to overtake him by the end of the race.
“I was catching at the end and feeling racy, but the gap was so big, I lost so much at the beginning of the race.
“I feel good, I don’t feel downbeat. It was a super-average race. But what I feel is that the last couple of years, we have had all these problems and we have spent several races trying to undo all those problems, trying to figure out what those problems were as opposed to now, we have a platform that we can start adding bricks to.
“So now it is a building process from here and I think we’re a great team.”
