Lewis Hamilton was left “on the edge of breaking point with emotions” during a rollercoaster Dutch Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion found himself in a rare position of fighting for a victory this season at Zandvoort, as Mercedes’ bold one-stop strategy put them in a straight fight with Max Verstappen.
However, his chances dissipated as two interruptions, caused by issues with other cars, ruined their plan.
“I think we did, yeah,” Hamilton told Sky Sports on if he thought victory was possible. “But given the circumstances, we were just challenged with lots of things, with the VSC and the Safety Car.
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“I think the strategy and the car had been so good until that point. The pit-stops were fantastic, like the best I think we’ve had all year – it was geeing me up.
“We were all on it and I really was hoping we would get a one-two together as a team. Especially after such a not great, up and down year. We’ve not had a win since Jeddah last year, so it was finally there within our grasp.
“But then of course there’s the Safety Car, [it] really didn’t help, and I was just on the edge of breaking point with emotions.”
That was highlighted by Hamilton’s sweary tirade over the radio to Mercedes after the Safety Car for leaving him out on used medium tyres up against Verstappen on softs in an eerily similar situation to Abu Dhabi last year.
“My apologies to the team because I don’t remember what I said,” he continued.
We need to have a discussion about #AMuS calling Lewis Hamilton “Totos diva” and title an article “Hamilton loses it on the radio”.
Every driver has moments like this but Lewis is the only one being critisised. pic.twitter.com/04p3oZWb9A
— Stefanie (@Schleifpferd) September 5, 2022
“I just lost it for a second, but I think they know it’s just so much passion and I want to look at it as a glass half full.
“We came here struggling from the last race, we were fighting against the Red Bulls today. We were quicker than most at many points.
“Without the Safety Car, I think we would have been challenging for the win at the end on the one-stop, which I don’t think the others could do.
“So many great, great things to take from when the car was finally working. If this can be the same in the future races, we will be continuing to breathe down their necks and we will get that win.”
To make matters worse for Hamilton, he was passed not only by Verstappen but also teammate George Russell, who did pit, and Charles Leclerc as the Briton slipped to fourth.
But Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes it was a lose-lose situation regardless.
“You can do two things,” the Austrian said. “You can either pit Lewis, lose track position against Verstappen and leave George out – screwed or you can pit both – screwed. So it was worth taking the risk.”
Toto also defended Hamilton’s outburst, adding: “First of all, we had a trash bin for the driver. It’s highly emotional. You’re that close, you’re bracing for the win and then you’re eaten up.
“So it’s clear that every emotion comes out and as a driver, you’re in a cockpit, you’re alone. You don’t see what’s happening. We discussed in a moment ‘are we taking risks for the race win? Yes, we are taking risks’.
“He had a tyre that was five laps old from the medium, holding position was the right thing to do. At the end, it didn’t work out for him but I’d rather take the risk to win the race with Lewis rather than finish second and third.”