Lewis Hamilton remains top of the Driver’s Championship with 225 points after finishing ninth at the German Grand Prix, 41 points ahead of second placed Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
A previously unheard radio message during the German Grand Prix has revealed Lewis Hamilton wanted to retire his car after spinning at Turn 1 late in the race.
Hamilton’s car was carrying damage after a collision with the barrier on lap 29 — the same incident that cost him the lead of the race — and on lap 53 of 64 he spun again at Turn 1, dropping him from 12th to 13th. The high-speed spin damaged his tyres and as his race engineer Peter Bonnington radioed him to tell him to pit, Hamilton responded by urging the team to retire his car.
« Okay, Lewis. Box, box for new soft tyres. Let us know if you need a flap adjust, » Bonnington said.
« Retire the car, » Hamilton replied.
« Negative, Lewis, negative, » Bonnington responded. « There’s always opportunities. »
The pit stop on lap 53 dropped Hamilton to last of the 15 runners, but he recovered to 11th at the finish and post-race penalties for Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi ultimately promoted him to ninth. The two points he scored as a result extended his lead in the championship to 41 points over Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Hamilton was suffering from flu-like symptoms throughout the weekend and later described the race as « probably the worst day I’ve had in the office for a long, long time. »
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff hinted at the extent of the illness Hamilton was harbouring, saying most people would not have raced.
« I think he was not healthy — he wasn’t healthy the whole weekend, but I think he did the most he could to get himself in an OK place for the race, » Wolff said. « Many of us wouldn’t have considered being in a race car, but he did and he did feel better today.
« But he can’t be physically in his best game when he’s been ill for a few days. Having said that, he tried to push through and that needs to be admired. »
Speaking on Sunday night, Hamilton said he would spend the week resting up at his home in Monaco ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
« I’ve cancelled everything I have for the next few days, so I’m going home probably just to sleep the next few days and try and get over this bug, » he added. « It’s not really improving massively, but hopefully over the next couple of days it will.
« I don’t think being in the car is any good and health is so important, so I’ll just try and make sure I’m as healthy as I can be for the next race. »
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/27284819/unheard-radio-message-reveals-hamilton-wanted-retire-car-germany
