‘Perplexed, angry’ Lewis Hamilton reveals strategy 'battle' with Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton has revealed he “battled as hard as I could” to start the F1 Singapore Grand Prix on medium tyres, having been left “perplexed” by Mercedes’ strategy plans.

Lining up third on the grid and alongside teammate George Russell who qualified fourth, Hamilton started on the red-walled soft tyres, with all his rivals around him all starting on mediums.

The seven-time world champion was left frustrated with his strategy as he slipped to a sixth-placed finish at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, and fumed over team radio that Mercedes were “killing" him with the offset.

Both Mercedes drivers were pulled from their media obligations following the race after team principal Toto Wolff revealed they had suffered from “borderline heatstroke”.

But speaking at a Petronas sponsor event in Kuala Lumpur, Hamilton admitted Mercedes’ decision to start on softs “didn’t make sense to me”.

“It wasn’t fun,” Hamilton said of the race. “We sat in our meeting in the morning ahead of the race and the night before they had already mentioned that they would like to split the cars.

“I was a bit perplexed by it, because in the past when we’ve ever been in that position, if George has qualified well, like he normally does and I’m out of the top 10 or something, then we would split the strategies.

“But when we were so close it didn’t make sense to me and so I battled as hard as I could to fight to go onto the medium tyre but the team continued to suggest that I start on the soft.

“When they took the tyre blankets off and everyone was on mediums…”

Russell, sat alongside Hamilton, interjected to say: “When I saw that I was thinking ‘Lewis won’t be happy’.”

“I was so angry. Already from that moment I am frustrated,” Hamilton continued.

“I tried my best to keep up with the guys ahead but they were too fast. Then I just tried to make that tyre last as long as I could.

“I had to stop on Lap 17 and I knew from that moment that the race was done for me because the hard tyre was going to be a struggle in that heat.

“We’d been struggling with the balance of the car all weekend. We’d been changing so many different things. We had a great qualifying, but unfortunately the race was too much of a struggle for us.”

Wolff conceded that Mercedes’ strategic call was the “wrong decision”.

"We took a decision based on historic Singapore races where it is basically a procession, Monaco-like, and that the soft tyre would give him an opportunity at the start,” Wolff told media in Singapore.

"That was pretty much the only overtaking opportunity. That was the wrong decision that we all took together jointly.

"It felt like a good offset but with the rear tyre deg that we had it was just one way and that was backwards. So, there was a logic behind it but obviously, it was contrary to what we should’ve decided, but it doesn’t hide away from the fact that the car is too slow.

"It was a really painful evening. It is not about when you look at the positions, fourth and sixth, that is not good, especially when you are starting third and fourth.”