Hamilton happy with his race in India

Lewis Hamilton failed to maintain his third place on the grid for the Indian Grand Prix. The Briton gave in to his former teammate Fernando Alonso after having a bad start and was slowed down by problems with his steering wheel, the gear selection paddle of which required a change during his pit stop. “During the first stint I started to have a problem with gear selection. The team decided to change my steering wheel during my pit stop. I've never had to make a change like this in a race before. We had trained for this exercise in Barcelona but never in a race. The mechanics carried out the maneuver at incredible speed, while under immense pressure, and I would like to congratulate them. I had taken the steering wheel off before even stopping the car. The team installed the new one, I engaged the first one and it was done, all in three seconds. »

75 points behind the leader Sebastian Vettel who won a fourth consecutive victory, Lewis Hamilton is no longer playing for the title but for the results for his last races within McLaren. The 2008 world champion, however, failed to take advantage of the SREC issues of Mark Webber to get on the podium, failing just seven tenths behind the RB8. “I tried to catch Mark in the last laps, but it was too late... I never gave up, until the last corner I thought I could catch him. I still loved this race. I don't remember the last time I attacked so much, so hard and for so long at the limit. It was fantastic to be in the middle of that fight. »

With Jenson Button's fifth place, McLaren scores 22 points at the Buddh International Circuit. The Woking team, however, is losing ground on Ferrari, which is ahead of the British team by ten points. Red Bull leads the Manufacturers' Championship with 91 points ahead of the Team.