Hamilton not worried by Rosberg's 17-point lead; Blames poor start on a slow reaction time and says Bottas clash a "racing incident"
Thursday 7 April 2016 17:16, UK
Lewis Hamilton says he feels "really chilled" heading away from the Bahrain GP despite fresh start-line problems handing Nico Rosberg the early impetus in the 2016 title battle.
For the second successive race, Hamilton lost the advantage of pole position within seconds of the lights going out as a fast-starting Rosberg moved clear off the line.
Hamilton's W07 was then hit by a fast-starting Valtteri Bottas, an incident which damaged his car's bodywork and floor and dropped him to ninth place.
Despite struggling for downforce - a deficit Mercedes have suggested cost him one second per lap - the Briton found himself back in the podium positions after the first pit stops but was unable to hunt down Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for second place.
Rosberg claimed a comfortable fifth straight victory and leads Hamilton in the standings by 17 points after two races in the new season - not that the reigning champion is unduly worried.
"I actually feel really chilled, to be honest," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. "Jeez, it is what it is, it's not a big issue.
"There's a long, long way to go. 17 points down? I've had a lot of worse.
"Qualifying was great - the last two qualifyings have been good - I think I had the set-up right for the race, but unfortunately I was unable to exploit that. It is what it is."
A smiling Hamilton added: "Congratulations to Nico - an easy day for him for sure - I live to fight another day."
Hamilton finished 20 seconds behind Raikkonen and admitted: "I had damage on my car, I couldn't keep him with Kimi, he had his perfect package.
"I did everything I could, but the rear end was sliding around a lot so I couldn't eek out anymore from the tyres so that was really what we had to do. Look after the car, look after the engine, so we could live to fight another day."
And although Hamilton's second successive poor start could be cause for concern for Mercedes, the Briton accepted blame for the sluggish getaway.
"It actually wasn't as bad as it looked," he said. "I lost a lot of ground to Nico, but it was generally from the reaction times wasn't good enough.
"I don't think there were any real performance issues."
Stewards ruled that the subsequent clash with Bottas at the first corner was the Williams driver's fault, handing the Finn a drive-through penalty, but Hamilton was not apportioning blame.
"Whoever was on the inside was in my blind spot so I didn't see them," he said in the press conference. "It was a racing incident, those kind of things happen."
