Hamilton trolled by Red Bull chief after disastrous Imola GP

RED BULL chief Helmut Marko has claimed Lewis Hamilton may now be wondering why he didn’t call time on his F1 career last season after the Mercedes star endured yet another afternoon to forget at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion has had a rough ride so far this season and his rotten luck continued in Imola as he finished pointless in 13th place.

Yet there was further humiliation when Hamilton was lapped by his rival Max Verstappen.

“Ouch that is going to hurt,” commented Sky Sports’ F1 commentator David Croft, with the cameras showing Christian Horner and then a very straight-faced Toto Wolff on the respective Red Bull and Mercedes pitwalls.

To make matters worse, Red Bull’s Marko has now jokingly suggested that Hamilton may be regretting his decision to race on.

“I mean, he was lapped by us,” Marko told Craig Slater of Sky Sports News. “Maybe he is thinking he should have stopped last year!”

Two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen recently suggested that Hamilton may in fact be wishing he was part of another team, though the Mercedes man rejected those rumours as “nonsense”.

“I’m afraid this will be a really difficult season for Lewis,” the 1998 and 1999 world champion said.

“Now start the natural thought process of drivers. Should I go somewhere else? It’s a fact.”

But Hamilton disputes those claims and has once again reaffirmed his commitment to turning things around with Mercedes.

“There is nowhere else I want to be. Just because we have hit a rough patch, it is not in my DNA to back out,” he said.

“We can fix this. It is going to be a painful year that we are going to have to ride out together.” – Express Newspapers