It was an extraordinary pit-lane blunder by McLaren which cost Hamilton a second successive victory as Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello took the chequered flag at the Grand Prix.
Pole-sitter Hamilton was leading the Brazilian veteran by around four seconds prior to his second stop on lap 37 but he came unstuck when McLaren’s mechanics failed to have a new set of tyres ready.
The incident cost Hamilton around six seconds and allowed the hard-charging Barrichello through for his first victory since the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix.
However, showing his sportsmanship, he refused to point the finger of blame at his team for the pit-lane error. Daily Mail
The McLarens led Barrichello by eight seconds when the first pit stops began on lap 16. By running for four laps longer than the McLarens – thanks to qualifying with more fuel on board – Barrichello was able to turn in a series of fast times to leapfrog Kovalainen as the Brawn had stopped on lap 20. Hamilton had chosen the softer tyre for the middle stint whereas Barrichello ran the harder version, a choice that appeared to be paying dividends as he closed to within 3.6 seconds of Hamilton. An attempt to eke more fuel from his car led to Hamilton being told continue for another lap just as he reached the entrance to the pit lane.
“The first part of the race was very consistent,” said Hamilton. “But in the second stint, I was struggling with my tyres. It was difficult to keep at Barrichello’s pace in the high-speed sections; that’s where he was catching me. I had been trying to save as much fuel as I could. I was told to come in at the end of lap 37 but, when they suddenly said to stay out, I was just on my way in to the pit lane and was already committed. When I got to the pits, the guys were coming out with the tyres, still in their [electric] blankets, so I lost time right there. It was just unfortunate. We win or lose together and, after the fantastic amount of work everyone has done to improve the car, we cannot take second place for granted. But, yes, it’s disappointing that we didn’t get the win.” Guardian.co.uk
“These things happen and it rarely happens to me. In all my time with this team, I think it is only the second time. They deserve a pat on the back.”
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh also defended McLaren’s pit crew and said the real reason Hamilton did not win was because his car was not fast enough.
“No it was not the pit stop,” he said. “We weren’t as quick in the race as we should’ve been. We needed to open up a bigger lead than we did today, we pushed it to the absolute limit, but had to make a late call on that second stop to get Lewis Hamilton in and that pit-stop cost us, maybe, a couple of seconds.
“It was an operational error, yes, that didn’t cost us victory, we didn’t have the race pace.” SkySports
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