Lewis Hamilton calls P3 at Malaysia “bittersweet” after late decision to stay on soft tyres

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

Lewis Hamilton described his P3 finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia as “bittersweet,” explaining that his podium came after an opportunity was nearly lost when he was briefly around a minute behind the race leaders at Sepang.

The race at Sepang was delayed by thunderstorms in the area and the initial race start procedure was suspended as multiple drivers, including Hamilton, struggled to maintain speed on the opening formation lap. When racing finally got underway in mixed conditions, Hamilton—who started second on the grid following qualifying—dropped 15 places after opting to fit his Ferrari with slick soft tyres rather than intermediates.

As the track did not dry as quickly as the team had hoped, Hamilton fell to P17 and ran about a minute behind the leading cars on the first lap, prompting Scuderia Ferrari to suggest a tyre change. Hamilton said he made the decision from the cockpit to “gamble” and remain on the softs, a call that enabled him to make rapid gains over the remainder of the race.

Hamilton ultimately crossed the line third, behind Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli, completing the recovery he did not expect at the start of the improved running. “I think it’s bittersweet,” he said. “We had an opportunity and ultimately didn’t maximise it. I had a tough [time] at the beginning, but after the race got going and I managed to keep it on track — which, I’m telling you, was so, so hard. I didn’t think that I’d be able to get back to third place, so I’m very, very grateful for that and very happy with it.”

Hamilton added that he could see on track-screen information that the deficit was growing early on, and that he believed the race had essentially slipped away before his pace improved. “Obviously we had the wrong call in the beginning, which was so difficult and I could see everyone just pulling away,” he said. “I could see on the screen it was a minute down, and I thought that was kind of race over for us. But I just kept my head down, the guys did a great job with the pit stops — obviously lots of tyre changes and lots of chasing.”

While Hamilton felt the outcome came with a missed chance attached, he said the performance left him more confident than in recent races. He told media it was one of his better weekends in red, citing strong execution across the day: “I think we did a really good job yesterday. The engineers did a great job, the mechanics did a great job with changing and fixing the car, getting the car where it needed to be.” He also said the car felt better in the race and that the team would review what could have been done differently before the next round. “We often talk about execution… [Saturday] we executed really well, and I think we’ll go back to the drawing board and look and see how we could have done better today, and we’ll try and take this performance onto next week.”