McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh impressed with Lewis Hamilton – Formula 1 news
McLaren’s team principal Martin Whitmarsh has appreciated the way Lewis Hamilton fought for the tenth place in the Korean Grand Prix after an anti-roll bar failure.
This past Sunday, while the Red Bull team was flying high, McLaren was witnessing their worst afternoon to date. Hamilton’s car suffered an anti-roll bar failure and teammate Jenson Button got troubled by Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi.
When the race began, Hamilton had been driving quite competitively in the fourth place. The failure occurred during the eighteenth lap and after that his lap times kept falling down. At the end of the race, his problem was further intensified when a little
piece of Astroturf got stuck with his car and slowed him down even more.
Despite all these hurdles, Hamilton drove impressively and was able to keep his car at tenth place and earn a point. Whitmarsh was also surprised about how the driver kept Kimi Raikkonen of the Lotus team at fifth for a couple of laps.
“You don't get much more heroic a drive for one point,” Whitmarsh said. “On lap 18 with the rear roll-bar failure I really didn't think that one; he'd get to the end of the race without consuming all of the tyres we had because you're just eating the tyres,
and two; to then contemplate points, if it were not for the Astroturf he should have got up to eighth place which was absolutely incredible.”
Whitmarsh appreciated that the whole team and particularly Hamilton fought throughout the race with unwavering spirit. He said that the drivers’ fight was elegant and he never showed desperation. Hamilton’s race against Raikkonen was worth lauding. The team
principal added that the Lotus driver had a tough race and it was amazing to see the respect between him and Hamilton referring to the fact that Raikkonen knew he was racing against an injured vehicle.
Whitmarsh insisted that this must have been the toughest point ever to be scored by the team. He said that it was inspiring to see Hamilton race so valiantly under such dire conditions.
Even though McLaren are now out from the championship run, the team is ready to forget Korea as soon as possible and put in their best fight for the remaining four races.
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