Sebastian Vettel: Lewis Hamilton was bored after Valtteri Bottas out-launched him

Australian GP

Vettel: Hamilton was bored after Bottas out-launched him

Did Lewis seem at his best?

Matthew Scott

Sunday 17 March 2019 15:09

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Sebastian Vettel believes Lewis Hamilton's "boredom" was the main reason for the Mercedes man finishing the Australian Grand Prix with such a huge deficit to race-winner Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton finished almost 21 seconds down the road from Bottas in second place at Albert Park.

Hamilton had snuck pole away from Bottas on Saturday but there was no stopping the Finn a day later, as he got a supreme launch off the line and bolted clear to take the most dominant by far of his four Formula 1 race wins.

While Bottas took victory, and a bonus point for fastest lap, Hamilton had to fend off a late charge from Max Verstappen, who took third from Vettel, to ensure Mercedes' one-two finish.

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However, Vettel does not believe that Hamilton's race might have been affected by losing out off the line, denting motivation for the remaining 57 laps.

"I don't know what Lewis was doing," said Vettel of his rival. "I think he was probably bored and not happy because he lost the start.

"I think it's not the first race where he's doing something just to go round, he was just playing at that point.

"I was told also on the radio that he's complaining about his tyres, but he made it quite safely to the end. Maybe he wasn't too happy driving from that point onwards."

???? "It was an incredible weekend for the team, we're leaving Melbourne with maximum points."

Lewis' #AusGP debrief ???? https://t.co/G1kXsmF9T5 pic.twitter.com/yrRpJ5E4K6
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) March 17, 2019

Though not exactly confirming Vettel's suspicions, Hamilton later admitted that the race situation meant he was happy to fall away from Bottas and bank second-place points.

"I was planning to just stay close behind, two, three seconds," he said. "Then obviously I had the issue with the car and the gap started to slowly increase. So it would have continued to increase.

"But then after that I was trying to look after the tyres and then I got [pit] stopped super-early in reaction to the Ferraris."