Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton says the time he lost during the opening laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix wrecked any hope he had of fighting for victory.
Hamilton started ninth on the grid as a consequence of his five-place demotion for taking on a new gearbox, and dropped a spot on the first lap, coming across the line in 10th.
Hamilton recouped lost ground, including passing three rivals in one swoop, and worked his way into fourth place eight laps into the race – by which time he was 14 seconds behind leader Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton extended his first stint on Softs to briefly lead, before he was overhauled by Vettel, and emerged from his sole stop in fourth place, which became third when Kimi Raikkonen retired.
Hamilton made in-roads on Vettel across the second stint, in which he ran the Medium tyre, and came home 6.5 seconds behind the Ferrari driver, reckoning the time lost early on proved pivotal.
“It was all about damage limitation and I think to get in the top three is a really great result for the team and for myself,” said Hamilton.
“We would prefer we didn't have the gearbox issue that we had this weekend, but I was really happy with my race pace.
“I had a really good start but I didn't capitalise on it. I got past a couple of cars off the line and then I went opposite to go on the inside.
“But the car ahead decided to dice to the right so I had to bail out and had cars pass me on the left, so I fell back on the opening lap.
“In my mind I knew that I had to get past that group of cars very early on.
“But by the time I did get past them the guys were 15 seconds ahead, so really the race was lost in those opening laps.
“Ferrari have shown over the last two races that they have the edge at the moment, but it is close and we definitely have to do a better job.”
Hamilton holds second position in the Drivers’ Championship, 17 points behind Vettel.
