McLaren's Lewis Hamilton claims his move in Malaysian GP wasn’t risky: Formula One news
McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has claimed that his defensive move against Fernando Alonso in the Malaysian Grand Prix was not dangerous at all. The British driver was penalised for his manoeuvre, which dropped him to eighth spot from his actual
seventh place finish in the race.
Hamilton stated, “I don't think I was overly defending my position. I'm a racer, and people want to see racing, they want to see overtaking and I would never in a million years try to put anyone else - or even myself - in danger.”
The British driver further added, “I think I've always raced with my heart and I think I've always made pretty smart decisions when it comes to racing and defending. When you're defending you have to try and make your car as wide as possible. The rule is
basically that you're not allowed to make more than one manoeuvre to defend.”
Apart from Hamilton, Ferrari’s driver Fernando Alonso was also charged with a 20 second penalty. However, this didn’t affect the Spaniard's race, as he remained in sixth spot where he originally finished.
Red Bull racing has been the dominant team so far this season, but McLaren have closed the gap on the defending champions, and Hamilton was pleased with this fact. He claimed that Nick Heidfeld’s Renault was slower, which allowed Sebastian Vettel to run
away.
The Vodafone sponsored team will bring some upgrades to the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix, which takes place on Sunday, 17th April. They will be looking to put an end to Red Bull’s dominance in that race.
On the other hand, the reigning champions are confident of repeating their strong performance in the season. However, the team is struggling to some extent with its Kinetic Energy recovery System (KERS), which will play a vital role in China.
Red Bull had some technical issues with the power boost system during the Australian GP and the team opted not to use it. However, the longer straights in Malaysia forced the champion team to get all their systems working.
However, the team faced some new problems and might not be able to use KERS in the next race, which would make McLaren favourites for the race.
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