World champion's charge cooled by water pressure issue
Thursday 19 May 2016 11:40, UK
Lewis Hamilton has defended his Mercedes team despite suffering yet more reliability issues during the Russian GP, which he believes ended his chances of an unlikely race victory.
Hamilton, who started the race in 10th because of an engine failure, recovered to P2 and at one stage cut eventual winner Nico Rosberg's gap out in front to seven seconds.
However, after a warning from his Mercedes team, Hamilton then had to ease off because of a "water pressure" issue with less than 20 laps to go.
Toto Wolff branded fans who peddled conspiracy theories regarding Hamilton's reliability before the race as "lunatics", and the world champion was later asked whether he thought the team were prioritising his team-mate after Rosberg enjoyed another trouble-free afternoon as he extended his championship lead to 43 points.
"From my side of the garage the mechanics are having a hard time," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. "But I have absolutely every bit of confidence and faith in them.
"The majority were on Nico's car last year and Nico's guys were with me for the last three years since i joined. The team all of a sudden swapped for no apparent reason.
"But that's not the reason we're having these issues, they're somewhere else. I don't know where the issues are coming from but for sure the team and guys in the background, they need to work hard to try and rectify these.
"We were doing 800 kilometers a day in testing and the car was almost seen as bullet-proof. Then, all of sudden we're having all these problems. But don't jump the gun, that [prioritising Rosberg] hasn't happened in the last three years and I don't believe there's any reason for that to happen now."
Mercedes team boss Wolff claims that Rosberg was also struggling with reliability issues during the race, with his power unit offering up some "strange signals".
Hamilton may be happy with more damage limitation after enduring a near-nightmare weekend in Sochi, but he believes he was on course to end the German's winning streak before the issue with his engine occured.
"It happened, I just had to try and nurse it home I'm glad it finished," Hamilton, who battled past Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas, added. "It was a problem leading to a failure. We've got a long way to go with not so many engines, so we just need to do a better job.
"There wasn't a doubt in my mind that I couldn't win it, I had the pace. But I had a problem with the engine so I had to back off. I wasn't at full throttle down the straights.
"I have no idea how critical the engine was, there was no indication for me in the car. But I had to slow down."
Rosberg, on the other hand, has now won seven consecutive races - four this season - and sealed his first ever F1 career 'grand slam' after sealing Sochi pole, race win and setting the fastest lap of the afternoon, a track record.
He still hasn't completed a competitive overtake all season and led from start to finish in Russia, but still maintains that his colleague will come back stronger.
"Lewis is going to come back, of course," Rosberg said. "He's on it and more motivated than ever."
