Lewis Hamilton defends slow-down tactics at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: ‘I was never going to lose’

Lewis Hamilton salutes the crowd after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, although his victory was not enough for him to retain his drivers' championship title. Mohammad Al Shaikh / AFP

ABU DHABI // Lewis Hamilton defended his racing in Sunday’s Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after Mercedes-GP chiefs confirmed there may be repercussions for his apparent insubordination.

The Briton was twice asked by his race engineer Pete Bonnington to increase his speed after his final pit stop, and then again by Paddy Lowe, the team’s technical director.

Hamilton won the race by 0.4 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg, a result that gave the German the world championship by five points.

But Rosberg had to withstand late pressure from the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, and also had both Red Bull Racing cars close to him in the final stages.

Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel were covered by less than a second at the end, a finish that had clearly left Mercedes uncomfortable.

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Hamilton said he was surprised to be challenged by the team on his tactics, designed to give other cars a chance to pass Rosberg, as he needed his title rival to be fourth or lower to ensure he won a fourth world title.

“I don’t know why they didn’t just let us race,” he said. “There was never a moment where I felt that I was going to lose the race.

“It’s a shame they wouldn’t. It’s quite clear their thought process.”

Toto Wolff, the team’s executive director, said on Saturday that the team would not get involved in telling their drivers how to behave on track.

But they changed their attitude when they feared Hamilton’s pace was allowing Vettel’s Ferrari to close too quickly in the final laps.

“We will not interfere as long as we can guarantee the win, and there was a situation where we calculated that we would lose the win, as Hamilton was getting slower and slower,” Wolff told Sky Sports.

“We interfered and Hamilton decided to ignore it.

“Does this set a precedent for the future? This is what we have to assess.”

Lowe said he and the team’s senior officials would think on whether there would be any punishment heading Hamilton’s way.

“I need to think about that one — I’m sure we’ll consider it for the next few days,” he told the BBC.

Rosberg was reluctant to be drawn into the matter.

“You can understand the team’s perspective and you can understand Lewis’s perspective,” the 2016 world champions said.

Hamilton had been hoping to become Britain’s most successful driver in terms of championships by winning a fourth, but he went into the record books another way.

His 10 victories are the most achieved by a driver in a season who has not gone on to be world champion.

“I did everything I could,” said Hamilton, who missed out on the title despite winning the final four races of the season, another F1 first

“Obviously Nico had a very clean year without any real issues to be honest. That is why we sit in this position right now.

“He did a fantastic job, congratulations to him.”

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