Lewis Hamilton ‘chilled’ after Valtteri Bottas crash
Valtteri Bottas’ accident prevented the British driver from capitalising on pole position as his Mercedes team-mate extended his points lead.
Lewis Hamilton said he was 'very chilled' about his fate after a second successive accident wrecked his hopes of turning pole position into victory in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.
'Really, I am feeling very chilled,' he said when asked after the race about his championship prospects following two successive victories by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Rosberg has now won five successive races since Hamilton secured his third drivers' title in Texas last year.
'I am not worried. I have had a great weekend and I am glad to have scored some points. Congratulations to Nico, I am sure he had an easy race today!'
After two races and two wins, Rosberg has 50 points and leads Hamilton, on 33, by 17, with 19 races remaining this year.
Hamilton's hopes in Sunday's race were wrecked when Finn Valtteri Bottas crashed into him at Turn One on the opening lap in his Williams. The Briton dropped to eighth with a a damaged car.
Bottas was given a drive-through penalty for the incident, as well as two penalty points.
Hamilton recovered to finish third, but said his car was too badly damaged for him to do any better.
'Obviously, I lost a lot of performance in the car,' said Hamilton, who finished third, 20 seconds behind Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.
'I had so much damage on the car I couldn't keep up with Kimi. I did what I could with it. I was trying to keep the tyres.
'I am not sure what happened at Turn One --whoever was on the inside was in my blind spot and I didn't see them, but it was a racing incident.
'I just don't know what happened. We could keep going and I managed to continue and still had some performance in the car.'
Hamilton had made a poor start from his 51st pole position, just as he did from his 50th in Melbourne two weeks earlier.
'I don't think there was a particular issue, it just wasn't a good getaway... Nothing technical.'
He laughed when asked about his decision to arrive in the paddock on Sunday morning wearing full traditional Arab dress.
'It was just nice for me to do that because I have had such an enjoyable weekend here in Bahrain.'