Hamilton does not blame team

Lewis Hamilton refused to blame his McLaren team after a pit-stop blunder affected his race and may have cost him victory in Valencia, leaving him to finish second behind Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello.

Hamilton had led the majority of the race from pole position, but was coming under attack from the slightly heavier-fuelled Barrichello in the middle stint before his hopes of staying ahead of him were wrecked by a tyre mix-up at his final stop.

But rather than point the finger at his team for the mistake, the reigning world champion instead chose to focus on the fact that his second place acted as further proof that the team has turned around poor early-season form.


"We win and we lose together,” he said.

“We had a tremendous effort to get us here so we cannot at all take second place for granted or be disappointed we didn't get the win because we've had extraordinary pace and it was a tremendous effort from everyone.”

Asked specifically about the blunder at his second pit stop when the tyres weren’t ready for his arrival and time was lost as their blankets were removed, he said: "These things happen and I've had so many races for this team and this hardly ever happens and it's only the second time, I think.”

Talking of the pace of Brawn GP, Hamilton said: “We need to catch these guys up because I believe they are a little but quicker than us, but we're pushing all the time."

Hamilton’s second place moved him up to sixth place in the drivers’ standings.