Motor racing-Hamilton says 'heart sank' as tyre gamble backfired before stunning Sepang recovery

Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Sepang International Circuit, Sepang, Malaysia - October 4, 2026 Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton celebrates with his trophy on the podium after finishing third in the Bahrain Grand Prix REUTERS/Jakub Porzycki

SEPANG, Malaysia, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton ⁠said he had mixed emotions after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia where he started second on the grid but ⁠dropped to 18th when a tyre gamble went wrong before fighting to finish third in a chaotic, rain-hit ‌race on Sunday.

After rain delayed the start of the race by more than 90 minutes, Hamilton was one of the few drivers who switched from intermediate tyres to slicks on a track that was still drying.

The Briton had a slow start and then found himself going backwards, falling as low as 18th, but he opted ​to stick with his strategy despite Ferrari calling him back into the pits for ⁠a tyre change.

Hamilton then carved his way through the ⁠field as the track dried up while safety cars also came to his rescue, with the veteran eventually overtaking Red Bull's Isack ⁠Hadjar ‌in the dying stages to secure a podium behind Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli.

"As a team, we ended up taking that soft (tyre) and at the end of the pit lane, these two (Verstappen and Antonelli) took off their (tyre) blankets and my heart ⁠just sank, because I knew straight away that we were in trouble," Hamilton told ​reporters.

"As we pulled out, all the spray ‌came out the back of Max's car and I was like, 'Okay, I'm done. My race is really in trouble'.

"We ⁠made the decision to ​live with it. As everyone was overtaking me, they (Ferrari) said, 'Should we stop?' I said, 'No, we've already waited another 26 seconds. What's the difference'."

But as the track dried and safety car deployments played into his hands, Hamilton began a remarkable recovery drive as he gave Hadjar chase for fourth place, before George ⁠Russell's retirement gave him a shot at a podium.

"I just waited for ​the track to dry and once it did, it felt good that I was catching people. The car felt great. Then after that, really good pit stops from my guys in the garage," Hamilton added.

"And then a good strategy. So for us to get back to the podium, ⁠I never thought that that's what was going to be the case. I'm really, really grateful."

His teammate Charles Leclerc also salvaged fourth place for Ferrari and he conceded that was the best they could have achieved considering how much faster Red Bull and Mercedes were.

"Honestly, the first part of the race, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. And on the second part, everything that could have ​gone right went our way," Leclerc said.

"So at the end of the day, I prefer it ⁠that way than the other way around. We were P4 today and I honestly think that with a normal race we would have ​finished P3 and P4. The two guys in front were just way too quick ‌for us.

"Lewis had quite a good pace. I struggled a lot ​with the car, which we're looking into. I had a good feeling on Friday, good feeling until Q2, and then Q3 I started to lose out. Today the race was very tricky."

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Sepang;Editing by Christian Radnedge)

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一级方程式赛车（F1）——巴林大奖赛——马来西亚雪邦国际赛道——2026年10月4日，法拉利车队的刘易斯·汉密尔顿在巴林大奖赛中获得第三名后，在领奖台上举起奖杯庆祝。（路透社/雅库布·波尔齐茨基摄）

马来西亚雪邦，10 月 4 日（路透社）——刘易斯·汉密尔顿表示，在马来西亚巴林大奖赛后，他的心情很复杂。他在周日一场混乱且受雨水影响的比赛中，从第二位发车，但由于轮胎策略失误而跌至第 18 位，最终奋力拼搏，获得第三名。

由于下雨导致比赛推迟了 90 多分钟才开始，汉密尔顿是少数几位在赛道仍在变干的情况下，从半雨胎换成光头胎的车手之一。

这位英国车手开局缓慢，随后排名下滑，一度跌至第 18 位，但他仍然坚持自己的策略，尽管法拉利车队叫他回维修站更换轮胎。

随着赛道逐渐变干，汉密尔顿一路超越对手，安全车也及时赶到，帮助他脱困。这位老将在比赛的最后阶段最终超越了红牛车队的伊萨克·哈贾尔，成功登上领奖台，位列马克斯·维斯塔潘和基米·安东内利之后。

“作为一支车队，我们最终选择了软胎，在维修站出口处，这两个人（维斯塔潘和安东内利）取下了轮胎毯，我的心一下子沉了下去，因为我立刻就知道我们遇到麻烦了，”汉密尔顿告诉记者。

“当我们驶出赛道时，所有的水花都从马克斯的车尾喷了出来，我当时想，‘好吧，我完了。我的比赛真的麻烦了。’”

“我们决定接受这个结果。当所有人都超过我的时候，他们（法拉利）问：‘我们要停下来吗？’我说：‘不，我们已经又等了26秒了。有什么区别呢？’”

但随着赛道变干，安全车的出动对他有利，汉密尔顿开始了惊人的追赶，他一度追赶哈贾尔，争夺第四名，之后乔治·拉塞尔的退赛又给了他登上领奖台的机会。

“我只是等着赛道干透，一旦赛道干了，我就能追上其他车手，感觉真好。赛车感觉很棒。之后，我的车队在维修站的换胎也做得非常出色，”汉密尔顿补充道。

“然后就是制定了好的策略。所以，我们能够重返领奖台，我从​​未想过会是这样的结果。我真的非常非常感激。”

他的队友查尔斯·勒克莱尔也为法拉利车队挽回了第四名的成绩，他承认考虑到红牛和梅赛德斯的速度要快得多，这已经是他们所能取得的最好成绩了。

“说实话，比赛的前半程，所有可能出错的事情都出错了。而到了后半程，所有可能顺利的事情都朝着我们有利的方向发展了，”勒克莱尔说道。

“所以说到底，我宁愿这样，也不愿反过来。我们今天排名第四，说实话，我觉得如果比赛正常进行，我们本来可以拿到第三或第四名。前面那两个人速度实在太快了。”

“刘易斯的速度相当不错。我的赛车状况很糟糕，我们正在调查原因。周五我的感觉很好，直到第二节排位赛（Q2）都感觉不错，但到了第三节排位赛（Q3）我就开始落后了。今天的正赛非常棘手。”

（罗希特·奈尔在雪邦报道；克里斯蒂安·拉德内奇编辑）

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