Hamilton not happy with wrong strategy
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has accused his team of getting the race strategy totally wrong at yesterday's Australian Grand Prix. The Briton was called in for a second pit stop on lap 34 while his closest rivals stayed out on the track. Hamilton finished the race in 6th position.
Hamilton said to 'BBC Sport': "The strategy was not right. I drove my heart out and I deserved better."
"I probably had one of the drives of my life, but unfortunately due to the strategy I was put further back and then I got taken out by Mark Webber. I am happy with the job that I did.
"Everyone else in front of me did one stop and for some reason I did two. I'd already stopped once and my tyres were fine. I went for the second stop and worked my backside off to catch the 20-second gap. I didn't question it because I always trust the team.
"I had the pace to overtake Kubica and we could have had our first one-two, which would have been great for the team. But unfortunately that wasn't the case."
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren's Team Principal, admitted after the race that his team made the wrong call: "It was an exciting and disappointing day for Lewis,. He had a great day but we made a decision as a team, we decided that we needed to change tyres and ultimately it disadvantaged him.
"We could have had a one-two and inevitably there's a tinge of disappointment when you don't get it.
"I've already spoken to Lewis, he's someone who wants to win. The time at which we took the decision I personally believed it was the right call, but in hindsight you can now see how the race played out - the Ferraris didn't stop. If he'd stayed out and his tyres had been intact he could have been second. At the time, he was losing time behind Kubica and you could see graining on his rear left tyre.
"Those drivers who had pitted were going over a second a lap quicker so we believed it was the right call. To all intents and purposes I made the call as I could stop it or overrule."
