Lewis Hamilton to follow his own instincts more after Mercedes glitch cost him Australian victory

Sebastian Vettel made the most of the error to snatch victory

Hamilton was shocked when Vettel emerged from the pits ahead of him (Getty)

Lewis Hamilton says he will be more inclined to follow his own gut instincts in the cockpit following the software snafu which cost him an easy 63rd grand prix win, in the F1 season opener in Melbourne on Sunday.

Starting from pole position for a record 73rd time, after a spectacular final lap in qualifying, he controlled the race initially from the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. But after a safety car period caused when both Haas cars suffered cross-threaded wheelnuts during their pit stops, Hamilton suddenly found himself running second when Vettel took advantage of the situation to dive into the pits to change tyres and emerged inches ahead.

The Mercedes team had relied on software information which suggested that so long as Hamilton was 15 seconds clear of his closest pursuit he would continue to lead the race, but it later emerged that the figures were wrong. Source suggested that human error had seen the wrong figures inputted.

Hamilton admitted his first emotion was disbelief when he saw the red car exiting the pit lane just ahead of him, when he had believed it to be some way behind.

“I still don’t fully understand what happened,” he said on Sunday evening in Albert Park, after Vettel had jumped from third to first after running a longer opening stint than either Hamilton or Raikkonen, then taking advantage of stopping while the safety car period obliged his rivals to run at a lap speed predetermined by the FIA, and controlled via each car’s common electronic control unit (ECU), until the track was clear again.

“The team couldn't give me an exact reason as to why it was the way it was,” Hamilton said. “So, I can't really say how I feel about it.

“It's never easy to lose a grand prix but there were so many positives to take from this weekend. In the race I had extra tools, I could have been further ahead by the first pit stop.”

Just before the safety car period he had closed the gap to Vettel, who had yet to pit, to 11.3s, without risking pushing his own new tyres too hard and thus suffering a potential disadvantage towards the end of the race when Vettel’s tyres would have been at least five laps fresher.

“There were so many good things we could have done, but if one thing is telling you one thing, and you think you're doing it to the book, within the limits, then there's nothing you can do.

“I’d love to rely more on my instincts as a driver, definitely. But it’s so hard because this is a team effort so you rely so much on the data and technology. I wish it was more in my hands, because I feel like I was driving as good as ever today.

“If we had known what would happen I could have pushed harder before the safety car, and then taken a risk with my tyres at the end of the race. I had the tools. Kimi was quick and it wasn’t easy to pull away from him to begin with, but I was looking after my tyres and I could have run longer, like Sebastian. In my head I was really racing him, not Kimi, but it was like Ferrari had two jokers in their pack, so when Kimi pitted I had to protect myself by pitting too, to prevent him getting the undercut from pitting sooner than me. But really, I was racing the third-placed car.”

As Hamilton stressed that there were many positives to take from finishing second, despite that seeming like a dark cloud over his weekend, Vettel freely admitted that luck played a big part in his 48th success.

“I think our car has huge potential but I’m still struggling a little bit,” he said. “When you talk about something that you miss as a driver, it’s because the car doesn’t respond the way you like. Ours is still sliding in places you don’t want it to slide. I want the car to be spot-on when I hit the brakes and turn in, and in that window, I’m not yet happy, so it’s always sort of a compromise. Of course, it’s our job to drive around problems that we have but if I could choose, I would like it a bit different. It’s not a big drama. I think we can live with it but I feel also if we get on top of that, then you will feel more confident.”

Vettel on the podium (Getty)

Hamilton, who said he was surprised just how fast the Ferraris were on the straights, described his Mercedes as a great car, and added, "We are still the world champions, and with a couple of adjustments we can win the next race. I believe that."

Both, however, were as surprised as Red Bull were by the pace of their RB14. Both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were trapped behind slower cars for much of the race because of the way that things worked out, and how hard it is to overtake on a track that is second only to Monaco in that respect. But Ricciardo set the fastest lap, half a second faster than anyone else, while chasing Raikkonen for the final podium position.

“Neither car had run in clean air all afternoon up until that point,” team boss Christian Horner said. “We were as surprised as he was when Daniel did a 1m 25.9s. None of us had expected that.

“We are convinced that we had a better car than Ferrari, though the Mercedes still probably had something in hand. It’s difficult to say.”

Hamilton believes that the true pattern of the 2018 season will not begin to emerge until the first four races are out of the way. The circus now regroups briefly prior to the back-to-back races in Bahrain and China at the start of April, where, on Sunday afternoon’s form, any one of the top three teams could win.