Hamilton: I will come back to win the next one

Lewis Hamilton would have the right to feel robbed of a comfortable win at the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix thanks to an inexplicable strategy call in the last dozen laps of the Monaco Grand Prix, prior to which he was cruising to victory. But instead the reigning Formula 1 world champion had to settle for a highly unsatisfactory third place. He spoke at the press conference after the race.

That didn’t work out today....
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, it was not the easiest of races. But, you know, the team has done amazing all year long and we win and we lose together, so I’m just grateful for the job that I did and congratulations to Nico and Sebastian.

Can you tell us why your car was brought in? You had quite a big gap didn’t you and then the safety car picked you up. Your car was pitted and your team-mate’s wasn’t.
LH: I’m sure we’ll sit down afterwards and try and think of ways we can improve.

How bad is it? How bad do you feel now? You’ve lost the Monaco Grand Prix, it has been taken away from you. What’s going through your mind?
LH: Come back to win the next one.

Obviously we all understand how difficult this must be for you. The crowd clearly sympathised with you, you got a huge cheer when you collected your trophy. Can you just tell us what part, if any, you played in the decision to make that late pitstop and how that unfolded.
LH: To be honest it happened so fast I don’t really remember but it was a good race up until then and, still, we got good points there.

Did you think you had it won, obviously, at that point? Did you come into the pits full of confidence that you were doing the right thing at that time?
LH: As I said, we will probably analyse and try to figure out what we did wrong – but we’ll collectively – together as a team – try to rectify it in the future.

Can you gives us just some idea as to how you’re feeling right now. Obviously we see you’re very low, very down but just express in your own words how you’re feeling. And, secondly, when that Safety Car situation unfolded, did you not at all question whether to come in or not? Bearing in mind, regardless of the situation with the tyres, track position is ultimately king in Monaco.
LH: I can’t really express the way I feel at the moment. So I won’t even attempt to. You rely on the team. I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn’t see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting. The team said to stay out, I said “these tyres are going to drop in temperature,” and what I was assuming was that these guys would be on Options and I was on the harder tyre. So, they said to pit. Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.

After what happened today, will you have 100 per cent confidence in the team’s strategy decisions in the future?
LH: Yes.

Can you imagine that maybe the strange situation of first having a virtual safety car and then all of a sudden a safety car could have added or contributed to the confusion?
LH: I’ve no idea. I was just driving.

Did you know the gap between you and Nico at that moment?
LH: Before the safety car came out I knew the gap. It didn’t worry me when we got behind the safety car. I didn’t know once we got behind the safety car.

Coming out of the pits side-by-side with Sebastian Vettel after the pit stop who was ahead?
LH: I was behind.