Hamilton 'in disbelief' after losing victory in Melbourne

Lewis Hamilton did what was necessary to secure victory at the Australian GP, ​​but the driver Mercedes lacked success by being disadvantaged by the Virtual Safety Car imposed by the race direction following the double abandonment of the Haas VF-18 Romain Grosjean et Kevin Magnussen.

Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) took advantage of the interruption in the race to go to the pits and take the lead of the race against the Briton.

“They did a better job today. We will have to review our plans and continue to work, but we still have good performances. Our qualifications were fantastic, declared the reigning world champion on the podium of the Australian GP. I was able to put a little pressure on in the last laps, but although this circuit is incredible, it is difficult to overtake. And this, even with the new DRS zone. So I was content to preserve my engine. We will try to pick up points later. »

Lewis Hamilton nevertheless continues to wonder about the reasons which made him lose the race, while Mercedes suspects software calculation error.

“I did everything I could, but the result was unexpected for everyone. I'm still a little incredulous because I don't really understand what happened. I will discuss it with my engineers”, added the four-time world champion.

The reigning world champion remains convinced that the Ferrari SF71Hs have better potential than that displayed in qualifying where the Briton was clearly above the rest.

“There was a lot of discussion this weekend about party mode and whether Ferrari would be fast enough. I don't think the gap is that high compared to what the results from the day before showed. I just had a good lap and maybe Vettel wasn't as good. In any case, they were really very competitive today. Although I attacked, they remained less than a tenth of our times. At least I know I gave it my all this weekend. I'm sure the team is suffering at the moment, but we will close ranks and continue to progress.", promised Lewis Hamilton.

Discover the analysis of the Australian Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2158 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.