By Brian Homewood
HOCKENHEIM, Germany, July 22 (Reuters) – Lewis Hamilton’s
100th Formula One race ended in frustration and retirement in
Germany on Sunday after his McLaren suffered a puncture early on
and he was lapped by the leaders.
The 2008 world champion dropped to fifth place in the
overall standings and was languishing 62 points behind leader
Fernando Alonso at the halfway mark in the season after retiring
in the pits on the 58th lap.
Hamilton started seventh on the grid but his hopes of adding
to his only win of the season, in Canada, were ended when he ran
over debris left after Brazilian Felipe Massa lost the front
wing of his Ferrari at the start of the race.
By the time he had pitted and rejoined, Hamilton had dropped
a minute behind Alonso and seen his chances evaporate.
“I’m not really quite sure (what happened). We had obviously
a puncture, there was a lot of debris on the track, I was a
little bit unlucky there and then we don’t know what happened
with the car,” he said.
A consolation for Hamilton was that his car was quick after
the misfortune, the Briton angering Vettel when he unlapped
himself to get between the German and race winner Alonso on the
track.
“At least it showed that the car was quick enough this
weekend,” said Hamilton.
Vettel gestured angrily as Hamilton went past, more for
effect and to catch the attention of the stewards than anything
else, and was critical of the McLaren driver afterwards.
“â??It was stupid for him to disturb the leaders,” said the
25-year-old, who was demoted from second to fifth after the race
for running off the track while passing Hamilton’s team mate
Jenson Button.
“â??That was not nice of him, I don’t see why he was trying to
race us.
“â??I didn’t expect him to attack because I didn’t see the
point, I was surprised when he was side by side.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also criticised
Hamilton, saying his behaviour had not been very sporting.
Hamilton had said before the race that he was reluctant to
celebrate the 100 race milestone, saying that getting older was
not something he was happy about. He also admitted he was
frustrated not to have added to his 2008 title.
(Editing by Alan Baldwin)
