Mercedes Mex-up won’t halt Hamilton

LEWIS HAMILTON is refusing to blame Mercedes after his world title roadblock at the US Grand Prix.

The Brit’s third-place finish in Austin means he needs just five points to become world champion for the fifth time. Finishing seventh in Mexico City on Sunday will be enough to get the job done with two rounds to spare. Hamilton’s celebrations were put on hold after a strategy error by Mercedes, which saw him pit early, denied him a shot at victory in Texas. The water pump on Hamilton’s car was also replaced before the race after a leak had been identified on team-mate Valtteri Bottas’ machine. A set-up issue, when his vehicle was hastily put back together, also came to light after the race. Hamilton said: “You saw that the car was in a million pieces on Sunday morning, so that was not ideal for the race.

“If we didn’t have a morning like that our race outcome would have potentially been different. We had another problem which cost us time and I was having to push that much harder.”

Hamilton (left) has asked to be kept in the loop of Mercedes’ analysis by his race engineer, Pete Bonnington, before he heads south of the border.

He said: “I will get an email update from Bono and then we will sit down on Thursday in Mexico and go through it all.

“No one is to blame. We take the blame together and we give ourselves a kick up the backside and realise that we have got to keep working.”

Mexico City was also the venue of Hamilton’s fourth title triumph last term and he added: “I honestly didn’t have any care about winning the championship in America.

“There were a lot of questions about it, but I hadn’t given it a single thought.

“I was here solely to win. My goal was to win these last four races of the season.

“For me, there are frustrations because I want to win the title for the team.”