Martin Whitmarsh: “It was a much stronger minded Lewis than we’ve seen before”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has praised Lewis Hamilton for his dignified response to retiring from the lead in Singapore.

Hamilton took a philosophical approach when he met the media after the race.

“I’ve got to say Lewis has been incredibly strong,” said Whitmarsh. “I’ve spoken to Lewis first hand, and I’ve got to say he’s in a very focussed frame of mind. He came round, thanked everyone in the team for all their efforts this weekend, and it was a much stronger minded Lewis than we’ve seen before.

“He’s very focussed and he knows there’s 150 points still available and he knows that we are going to work hard to see if we can collect all of those or as many of them as we can.

“He was looking after his tyres and driving well, and obviously a gearbox failure was disappointing for him and for the team. I think he’s done a great job all weekend and it’s a shame that the race didn’t work out for him.”

When asked by this writer if he was convinced that Hamilton would have beaten Sebastian Vettel come what may Whitmarsh was adamant.

“Without the gearbox problem, if nothing else had happened, I think yes, it was fairly evident that he was driving within himself, looking after his tyres. You could see from how he was driving that he was taking it very easily.”

He also praised Jenson Button for his strong race: “Jenson was very unlucky because he ran a great first stint, conserving his tyres, he had newer tyres than other people in the second stint, and of course the safety car negated that. He was looking after his tyres and was very much under control.”