Lewis: Brake problem masked our pace

Lewis Hamilton said the brake problem that forced his retirement from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix had hindered him for many laps and prevented him from demonstrating his McLaren’s true speed.

Hamilton had been peerless in qualifying and was expected to walk away with the season finale, but instead was unable to shake off the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the opening stint.

A mistake under braking for turn 17 on lap 11 reduced his cushion over Vettel to less than one second, and although he inched away again he lost the lead to the German at the first pit stops.

The team later said it had spotted signs of abnormally high wear on the right-rear brake bad after just a handful of laps and had instructed Hamilton to conserve the brakes.

After those efforts proved fruitless, it called him into the garage to retire rather than risk a brake failure.

“I had a good start, but I realised early on that something wasn’t right with the brakes,” related Hamilton.


“After three or four laps, it became clear that there was a problem with my right-rear brake pad, so I couldn’t open up the gap back to Sebastian and Mark.

“When the problem got worse, the team radioed me and told me to stop at the end of the lap.”

McLaren said it would be conducting a full investigation into the cause but that its initial analysis pointed to a faulty brake bad.

Although he was disappointed not to be able to take race-winning momentum into the winter, Hamilton feels the team’s impressive recovery from a poor start to the season stands it in good stead for 2010.

“Of course, it’s a shame that we couldn’t show the performance we’d had throughout the weekend – but sometimes that’s racing,” he said.

“However, I think we can be really proud of our efforts: Who’d have thought we’d finish third in the constructors’ championship at the start of this season?

“It’s been an incredible year, and now I can’t wait for next season to start so I can fight for the world championship again.”