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Lewis Hamilton opened up about the physical demands of racing in Formula 1 after a grueling British Grand Prix in 2018. After a second-place finish at the race, the then-four-time champion had to skip the immediate post-race interview because of exhaustion.
Hamilton started the 2018 British Grand Prix at pole position. But contact with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen on the first lap made him spin and restart from last position. He came back to finish second ahead of Raikkonen but went back to the paddock as soon as the race was over.
Fans speculated that the reason behind his avoiding media duties was the incident with Raikkonen in the opening lap. However, Hamilton rubbished the claims in the post-race press conference and revealed he was too fatigued to speak. When asked if he was frustrated with the Ferrari #7, Lewis Hamilton explained:
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"Not at all. See, it’s easy for you to sit and watch the race. I sweat my a*se off in that race. I pushed absolutely one hundred, a thousand percent, every bit of energy I had. I didn’t have anything left when I was coming in. People expect you to get out of the car and wave and smile and all that. I gave everything I could, I was struggling to stand."
Hamilton's weary day at the 3.661-mile Silverstone Circuit was due to the multiple stoppages and a crash on the opening lap. Coming into Turn 3, Raikkonen made contact with the #44 Mercedes' rear, spinning him into the gravel. This forced him to come back from the end of the field, hampering his chances of a strong finish.
Despite this, Hamilton did not hold any bitterness towards Raikkonen:
“It’s so physical nowadays and it’s different when you’re in the lead and you can control the pace. I was coming from last. I didn’t have much to give at that time, I needed to take a deep breath. I don’t have any problems with Kimi.”
The incident cost Raikkonen a ten-second penalty as Hamilton took advantage of a couple of safety car incidents on Lap 20 and Lap 32 to get back into the mix.
When Lewis Hamilton lauded Mercedes' 'right decision'
After the 2018 British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton admitted that Mercedes' strategy calls added to his physical exhaustion. When he restarted after spinning on the first lap, Sebastian Vettel and his teammate Valtteri Bottas had taken the lead. They remained dominant throughout the race as Hamilton chased them closely at third after a few well-timed calls by the Mercedes team:
"For me the guys pitted in front of me, that was an opportunity to get up into third. I think it was the right decision. If I had followed them and come in, I would have come out behind them, we’d have had the equal tyres and I would have struggled to get behind them and most certainly wouldn’t have been second," he said.
Hamilton defended the decision to stay out of the pits on Lap 32 because both the Ferrari racers decided to pit. This gained him places but kept him on older tires, which benefitted him more than Bottas. Vettel and Hamilton overtook Bottas on Lap 47, and Raikkonen also went past him a lap later. The Mercedes #44 held off the Ferrari driver to finish the race 1.38 seconds ahead of Raikkonen.
Vettel took an eight-point lead on the Briton in the championship table after this race, but Lewis Hamilton won six of the next seven races on his way towards his fifth F1 title.
