Lewis Hamilton has conceded his Formula One world title hopes are over as he praised the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, saying there was no stopping the Italian after his victory at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Hamilton, in third place in the championship, had to retire from the race at the Madring with a brake problem on lap six. After Antonelli’s victory it leaves the seven-time world champion 101 points behind the 20-year-old Italian, who took over his seat at Mercedes when Hamilton joined Ferrari.
“There’s no stopping him and Mercedes this year,” Hamilton said. “They’ve done a phenomenal job and they deserve it.”
George Russell, Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate, is in second place, 81 points behind with nine meetings remaining, a chasm. However Hamilton, who won his first race for Ferrari at Barcelona this season, insisted he felt there was still more to come from the team, even if Antonelli could not be caught.
“I think we have a good [car],” he said. “We’ve had a pretty decent car, a good car this weekend and we will continue to try and improve it and we have better results coming in the future.”
Antonelli’s win came after McLaren’s Lando Norris was unlucky with the timing of a virtual safety car, called just after he had passed the pit entry. Antonelli, behind Norris on track, was able to dive into the pits under the VSC and subsequently Norris lost track position. He was unable to make it back with overtaking all but impossible at the circuit and ultimately finished third.
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The defending world champion felt that it was unfair and it was time the rules around pit stops under the VSC were reconsidered. “It just hurts because there was nothing more I could do as a driver. I got pole, I led the race, and to lose it for nothing in my control is not how a race should be won,” he said.
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“There are things that can be changed to make it more simple, and more fair. We could be covered for at least one lap and that allows us all the opportunity to do a pit-stop, or the pit entry could be blocked. This needs to be part of a wider discussion, and as a group of drivers, I think it is something we would all want.”
