Pained Hamilton looks for answers

The mysterious disappearance of Lewis Hamilton's race pace has stumped the McLaren driver heading into Sunday's Korean Grand Prix

The 2008 Formula One world champion cut an unusually subdued figure after last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, struggling to understand where his pace had gone while team mate Jenson Button celebrated victory.

He missed out on pole position after crossing the line too late to get in a second lap and then had another coming together in the race with Ferrari rival Felipe Massa.

Even a visit to paddock neighbours Red Bull to congratulate Germany's Sebastian Vettel on a second successive championship ended in failure when he was unable to find the 24-year-old.

Hamilton could have blamed some of his woes on a slow puncture but instead, talking to British reporters with little animation, he was hard on himself and also seemingly lost for an explanation.

"We've got far bigger problems than that to worry about the championship," he said when asked whether it hurt to see Vettel, more than two years junior, win his second title.

While he agreed that his car was 'fantastically quick', the 26-year-old said he was just "not fast enough."

"I think you're all trying to come out solutions as to why I'm not going well, but there is no solution, there is no answer to it," he said as reporters suggested possible reasons.

"I don't know what the answer is, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't just jump to conclusions because I don't know what the answer is.

"I just wasn't quick enough. I was quick in qualifying, I just wasn't quick in the race."

NIGHTMARE SEASON

Hamilton has had a nightmare season, regularly called before the stewards and triggering numerous controversies over his aggressive driving style. Some of his comments have been ill-chosen and he is trailing Button in the standings.

Since his debut in 2007, and including that memorable season, Hamilton has never ended a championship behind a team mate on points.

There is a suspicion that the easy-going Button's increasing popularity and success in a team once seen as being built around the protege Hamilton, is starting to unsettle the younger Englishman more than he would like to admit.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh indicated that Hamilton was fighting a number of battles, some of them psychological, but expected him to fight back at the Yeongam circuit.

"His form will return," he said. "There's no-one in this team that doesn't believe in Lewis Hamilton.

"Every international athlete has highs and lows, and this has been a difficult time. That's the way of life sometimes," he told reporters.

"When things aren't going well they seem to multiply on you and that affects your mental condition, your state of mind, and it makes it more difficult."

Whitmarsh pointed out that Hamilton was five years younger than Button, who had been through plenty of difficult times earlier in his career.

"We have these massive expectations, and Lewis has massive expectations, on very young shoulders," he said of a driver who finished runner-up in the championship in one of the most sensational rookie seasons ever.

"When you start and it's very easy, then when you have that pressure and expectation, it takes some adjustment. He is dealing with that, and I am sure he will. He is a tough little fighter," added Whitmarsh.

"So I'm sure he's going to come good very, very soon."

Source: Reuters Sports

Hamilton admits title 'doesn't look good' after 'weekend to forget'

Whilst he just about avoided another costly retirement in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka last weekend, McLaren-Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has acknowledged that his F1 2010 title chances are currently receding by the race...

In the wake of what he described as 'one of the worst weekends [he] can remember', Lewis Hamilton has conceded that his chances of clinching his second drivers' crown in F1 2010 have sunk to a new low, as he ruefully reflected that his title shot 'doesn't look good'.

It was, indeed, something of a nightmare weekend for Hamilton at Suzuka, with a heavy 'off' during practice on Friday morning leading to an almost complete lack of set-up time given the FP3 wash-out the following day, and a five-place penalty for a gearbox change leaving the McLaren-Mercedes star just eighth on the grid, behind all four of his world championship rivals.

A bright start, however, hinted at a change in fortunes – an overdue one, it has to be said, off the back of three failures to finish and therefore to score from the four previous grands prix – only for his replacement gearbox to similarly malfunction and restrict Hamilton to a distant fifth place at the chequered flag, needing to drive the latter stages with no third gear and able to use only fourth to seventh.

The 25-year-old confessed that having initially feared the worst – a fourth DNF from five races – he was grateful merely to make it to the finish line and pick up ten points for his troubles, but with Sebastian Vettel tallying 25 for victory, world championship leader Mark Webber 18 for second place, Fernando Alonso 15 for third and his own team-mate Jenson Button twelve for fourth, he is all-too-aware that the crown is slipping increasingly from his grasp.

“I'd definitely say it's been a weekend to forget” the erstwhile title favourite is quoted as having said by Reuters, revealing that to add insult to injury over his Japanese Grand Prix weekend, he was suffering from an ear infection and had to endure the ignominy of being driven around the circuit in a 'ridiculous', 1950s open-topped three-wheeled Messerschmitt 'Bubble Car' during the pre-race drivers' parade. “It's probably been one of the worst weekends that I can remember.

“Not finishing the race in the previous ones was perhaps a little bit worse, but in terms of bad luck overall – the collective amount of bad luck – it's a bit unfortunate, this one. I can't imagine a weekend with more problems, to be honest.”

“I have no idea,” he continued, when asked about the championship now, sitting as he is some 28 points adrift of Webber. “[It] doesn't look good. I'm just thankful and so happy that I at least saw the end of the race – it's the first finish for a long time. You have to try and remain optimistic, but I didn't think it was going to make it, to be honest. The car was making a lot of noise, so I just kept my fingers crossed and tried not to make too many shifts and look after it.

“There are still three races to go and still 75 points available, but you know these guys (Webber, Vettel and Alonso) just continue to pick up points consistently, non stop. It will be very difficult, but we will keep pushing.”

The one tiny glimmer of light at the end of a miserable few days for Hamilton, was the confirmation from McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh that the successive gearbox issues would not lead to a further grid penalty in Korea next weekend, with the Englishman explaining: “It's not a problem for the next race. We've taken the penalty for this weekend, so we have a free gearbox change for the next race.”

Source: Crash.net