Lewis Hamilton's Melbourne Misery

HAMILTON'S HORROR WEEKEND

Lewis Hamilton had a disastrous weekend at the Australian Grand Prix and has come under fire for his attitude both on and off the track. Perhaps unfairly, the media has been very hard on Lewis but the 25 year old could have displayed a little more clear-thinking during his time in Melbourne.

However, the experience might actually work in Hamilton's favour heading into Malaysia.

FRIDAY

Hamilton's problems started when he left the circuit on Friday night. He gave his Mercedes some welly coming out of Albert Park and quite naively did so in front of a police car. Lewis was pulled over, fined, summoned to court, and had his car impounded. Perhaps worst of all, Lewis was made to look like a criminal whilst being filmed sitting inside a patrol car.

The local police and media were very hard on Lewis for something that may not seem like a big deal, but in Australia it's easy to understand why that might be the case. Young driver safety is a very emotive topic in the country at the moment after a string of recent high profile road deaths involving teenagers. A number of new national programs have been started that are designed to cut the frequency of accidents caused by reckless young drivers, so in that respect Lewis timed his indiscretion very poorly. This will explain why the police and local media were so keen to make an example of him, and why they turned it into a major issue. His actions would not have been as big a deal twelve months ago.

SATURDAY

Hamilton's woes continued on Saturday when he became the first driver from the top four teams to miss Q3. It was particularly disappointing because Lewis simply wasn't quick enough and didn't have any car or traffic problems to explain his poor showing. Embarrassingly, Jenson Button had moved into the final knockout qualifying session by lapping sixth tenths quicker in the other McLaren.

Hamilton again made the front page of the Melbourne papers, this time under the headline 'Donut King Flops'.

SUNDAY

Sunday's race at Albert Park started very well for Lewis. He drove brilliantly in the slippery conditions and moved into third place around mid-distance. Importantly for Hamilton (at the time at least) he made an overtaking manoeuvre on Jenson Button which re-established his view of the McLaren pecking order.

However, it all went horribly wrong.

Lewis was taken out of podium contention by Mark Webber who had earlier told reporters the 2008 World Champion could take some driving lessons from Tiger Woods. Not only did Webber push Hamilton's McLaren down the order via a gravel trap, but Lewis was just about to overtake his arch-nemesis, Fernando Alonso

Hamilton hadn't driven faultlessly all afternoon himself though and had clumsily tagged the back of Felipe Massa's Ferrari when he overtook the Brazilian. , McLaren didn't need to change his front wing but later suggested it might have caused some imbalance.

However, the biggest mistake that Hamilton made during the race was to criticise his team over the radio towards the end of the Grand Prix. McLaren called Hamilton in to the pits when Schumacher, Rosberg and Webber had stopped and started producing quick lap times. Given they expected everyone else to pit it made perfect sense to call Lewis in as well.

If Hamilton waited until after the race to have that explained to him, he wouldn't have been so accusatory when he asked his team "who's call was it to bring me in. It was a friggen terrible idea" over the radio. His misplaced anger probably did more damage to his image then any misdemeanour on the public roads.

To make matters worse, Jenson Button claimed a brilliant victory with a mature and calculated drive. Hamilton may have drawn first blood against his teammate in Bahrain, but now Jenson is winning the war.

AFTER THE RACE

Unfortunately, Lewis did not take time after the Grand Prix to calm down and attacked his team further by telling reporters "the strategy was not right. I drove my heart out and I deserved better". When asked who made the decision to pit, Lewis said "we'll find out".

His usual 'win as a team and lose as a team' attitude appeared to be lacking in Melbourne.

Whilst a frustrated blast in the heat of the moment is understandable, Hamilton timed his outburst very poorly. McLaren mechanics are now falling in love with Jenson Button's friendly and honest demeanour and Hamilton's comments, combined with the fact that some in McLaren are still bitter that Dave Ryan took the full blame for last year's lie-gate scandal, will make it a lot harder for Lewis to summon up support on his side of the garage.

WHAT NEXT?

Predictably, Hamilton has now retracted his earlier remarks and has said "the team has explained to me their reasoning behind the second pitstop, and I can understand what they were trying to do" but the comparison between his messy weekend and that of Jenson Button's will not go away.

Interestingly, this might not be a bad thing for Lewis.

History has shown that Hamilton responds very well to disappointment. After a number of mistakes and poorly chosen comments in 2008, Hamilton came under fire heading into his home race at Silverstone but ended up winning the event by almost a minute. He also bounced back from a scrappy performance in that year's Japanese Grand Prix by winning the following race in China.

Lewis will be on form in Malaysia and will be extra motivated to beat Jenson Button, so that should make him a major contender for the race on Sunday.

Provided he drives safely to and from his hotel.

Posted by Martin Porter. - Follow him on twitter @mpondaweb.

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• I agree that he responds well to disappointment. As the old saying goes "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger". I think we'll see Lewis come...
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