Lewis Hamilton: “I should have got out sooner…”

Lewis Hamilton blames himself rather than McLaren for failing to get his final lap in during Q3 in Suzuka.

Hamiltgot the chequered flag as he was about to start his lap after getting caught up with Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher, both of whom were equally keen to get round and start a lap.

Hamilton had to settle for his earlier time, which had been fastest, but was eventually good enough only for third.

“It was nothing to do with the team,” said Lewis. “The team were telling me what I needed to get the lap. The car in front was quite close to me, and I had to make sure I had a gap between myself and the car in front. The two guys behind me were racing to get to the line, and they got past, got past while I was just braking for the last corner.

“There’s not very much to say. It’s not the team’s decision, as I said it was my mistake, I should have got out sooner, but I was making a wing change which meant I went out later, so it was my fault.”

Hamilton said that his pace only became apparent in qualifying because he hadn’t had decent runs earlier in the weekend: “I’ve been quick all weekend, just I’ve got a lot of yellow flags, and not putting the sectors together, just not really done a complete lap. In qualifying, I did. Except the last lap.”

Meanwhile Martin Whitmarsh said that Lewis was wrong to take full responsibility.

“In fairness to Lewis we could have more explicit to him about time running out,” said the McLaren boss. “It was very tight, and people were trying to make gaps. It was a difficult situation, and in my view Lewis is being a bit hard on himself. I think we would have been more explicit in pushing him towards the end of that lap.”