Hamilton: German GP worst race for a long, long time

Lewis Hamilton lamented his worst day in Formula 1 "for a long, long time" after finishing 11th at the German Grand Prix.

Hamilton drove mightily from pole position for much of the race, but his efforts swiftly unravelled when he spun on lap 31 and knocked half of his front wing off.

As it happened so close to the pits, Mercedes were not prepared and Hamilton dropped places as he waited for the service and his efforts were hampered further when he picked up a five-second penalty for entering the pitlane incorrectly.

As he dropped further back amid more pitstops, he briefly ran in last place, recovering to the fringes of the points – where he ended up post-race as the Alfa Romeo cars were penalised for discrepancies in their starting procedure.

What to say on a day like today...

This hurts every single one of us to the core.

We will take our pain and learn our lessons.

It is time to reflect, be humble and grow stronger from the mistakes we made.#GermanGP #Motorsport125 pic.twitter.com/RfYImc1rR5

— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) July 28, 2019

Speaking before a decision was made on that case, Hamilton's mood was low.

"It was a bad day… bad weekend," he told Sky Sports. "There's not really much to say. It was probably the worst day I've had in the office for a long, long time.

"You live and you learn. I don't really know what happened today to be honest, but I'm glad it's over.

"We've got more races up ahead so just have to focus on regrouping and coming back stronger the next races.

"Me hitting the wall wasn't helpful and then putting on the slick tyres wasn't helpful even though it was still raining so it was just a combination of things."

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