Hamilton: Frustrating to lose time in stops

Lewis Hamilton has said he didn't realise he had lost so much time during his pit stops relative to his team-mate Nico Rosberg during the 2014 F1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Hamilton eventually finished second to Rosberg, just 1.9 seconds back, despite starting back in ninth. The Briton made a superb start and jumped up to fourth on the opening lap, however, in both stops he lost out to his championship rival, conceding 0.9 seconds on his first stop and 1 second on his second. He now drops 29 points behind in the Drivers' Championship with eight of the 19 races run.

Quizzed on what happened in the stops by Crash.net in the post-race press conference, and asked if the team had explained why there was such a difference, Hamilton replied: "They haven't yet. I didn't know I had lost that much time. They didn't feel that fast but it could be my positioning.

"I will investigate because obviously it is frustrating to lose time especially after you have done everything you can to gain a tenth here and a tenth there.

"When you lose such a chunk of time over two stops, it is tough. But at least the guys didn't make any major mistakes, let's step back and look at it like that. We have had so many 1-2s this year [too], [that] it is incredible. I am hoping in the future [though] we won't have those problems."

Hamilton and Rosberg both had to manage brake issues during the race, and Lewis said this was definitely something that hindered him.

"I think it was probably the same for both of us - maybe. I don't know, I need to check I guess. But, it was constantly an issue during the race. Obviously I was following people all the time and that is not always the best. I was being told to back off quite a lot unfortunately," he continued.

"The last couple of laps I tried to eke it out a little bit more, but I still had to be cautious. There wasn't an opportunity to overtake [Nico]. I am just grateful to finish where I am though after the last race [and having to retire in Canada]. That has really got to be the goal for the next few races to try and finish."

So how did he feel his race went overall?

"It was a good start. We have been working very hard on our starts throughout the year and the team have done a great job to help out with that. It is probably one of the best starts I have ever had in positioning the car in the correct places. That would have been great had I started perhaps where I should have started this weekend....

"But [overall] it was [good] damage limitation to get from ninth to second and to be pressuring Nico at the end of the race really shows the pace that I had this weekend. The guys [at Mercedes] did a fantastic job [this weekend]," he concluded.