Car problem to blame in Austin, says Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton refused to put the blame on Mercedes after he revealed a car problem contributed to his failure to sew up the world championship in America.

The 33-year-old needs just five points to close out the title, meaning seventh in Mexico City on Sunday will be enough to get the job done with two rounds to spare.

After he secured a brilliant pole, it was expected that Hamilton would be crowned champion in Austin, Texas, but a strategy error by Mercedes denied him a shot at victory.

The water pump on Hamilton’s car was also replaced before the race after a leak had been identified on team-mate Valtteri Bottas’ machinery.

A set-up issue, when his vehicle was hastily put back together, also came to light after the race, with the Briton saying it affected his performance.

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

“You saw that the car was in a million pieces on Sunday morning, so that was not ideal for the race,” Hamilton said.

“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 the issue I was having with the car was the biggest outlier. Given I had this deficit I was having to push that much harder to recover the time I lost.

“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 and keep pushing. We will come back stronger.”

Despite his troubles in a thrilling race at the Circuit of the Americas, Hamilton remains firmly in the box seat to emulate Juan Manuel Fangio with his fifth championship this coming weekend.