Lewis Hamilton insists he didn't do anything dangerous or unfair
Lewis Hamilton insists he didn’t do anything unfair when he slowed down in Abu Dhabi in an attempt to back up teammate Nico Rosberg and make him vulnerable to being passed by Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
In the end the positions didn’t change, but the Mercedes management made it clear afterward that they were not happy with what Lewis had done.
“I don’t think I did anything dangerous today,” said Hamilton. “So, I don’t feel I did anything unfair. We’re fighting for a championship, I was in the lead, I control the pace. That’s the rules.
“I don’t know why they didn’t just let us just race. There was never a moment where I felt I was going to lose the race. It’s a shame that they wouldn’t but it’s quite clear their thought process, and yeah I mean I don’t really have much to say.”
Explaining his actions, he added: “I’m in a position where I’ve obviously had a lot of points lost during the season so for me, I’m out there fighting and I generally never try to do anything to harm the team or the brand or anything like that. But we’ve won the Constructors’ Championship so it was down to me and Nico today.
“And however, they still felt they needed to make comments, and so we’ll discuss it afterward as we always do as a team, and pull back in. But we can’t let that overshadow the fact that Nico’s just won a Championship and the team has dominated all year long. We’d had more wins than any other team I think in the past maybe. So, we cannot ignore that fact that it’s been an incredibly successful year.”
Hamilton stressed once more that Rosberg had enjoyed a trouble-free year.
“I did everything that I could, particularly toward the end and obviously Nico had a very, very clean year without any real issues to be honest and that’s why we sit in this position right now. But he did a fantastic job, so big congratulations to him, it’s a great feeling to win the world championship and I look forward to fighting with him next year.
“There have been a lot of great things that have happened this year. One in particular is the bond and relationship I have with my mechanics and engineers – my new mechanics – that joined my side of the garage. They did a fantastic job all year long. I think the working relationship has been better than ever, particularly going through all those experiences. There’s that and I was generally quickest most of the year, so it’s definitely been a positive, a lot of positives to take from it. So I take that into next season.”
