"It was important, it felt more important than the test" says Lewis
Wednesday 8 July 2015 11:43, UK
Lewis Hamilton has revealed he missed testing in Austria due to a doctor’s appointment.
The world champion was soundly beaten by team-mate Nico Rosberg in the Austrian GP two weeks ago, when his title lead was cut to 10 points, and was due to run one of the two days of testing that followed the race.
After Mercedes confirmed that Hamilton had ‘asked to be excused’ from running, Rosberg returned to action instead, completing more than 100 laps and setting the fastest time of the two-day event.
But Hamilton has now explained that he opted to skip the event for health reasons.
“I had some doctor check-ups that needed to get done, it was very important,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “It felt more important than the test.”
Hamilton has suffered poor race-starts in two of the last three events, culminating in Rosberg beating the pole-sitter off the line in Austria to take the lead of the race. The Englishman has revealed that a fault has been detected by the team, who also fielded youngster Pascal Wehrlein during the test, and a new start mode will be used this weekend.
“I was very much in touch with everyone at the test, I got all the information on what was tested. Things like the starts, they went through the sequence to find out what happened at the start in the last race,” he added. “They did the same thing in the test and found an issue so they rectified that.”
But that’s not all Hamilton wants fixing. After winning the British GP 12 months ago Hamilton joked that his winner’s trophy was of such low quality that “it must have cost £10” and he has reiterated that criticism ahead of this weekend’s return to Silverstone.
“There is some real great silverware out there for different events,” he said. “What I love here for example is you have the gold trophy, a real signature of winning here and a historic trophy. You give it back but you get a replica of it. I almost feel like each country should have that special trophy that you get to take away for a year and give it back. It has all the names of the greats that have won it. It’s a proper trophy, not a wooden spoon or something.”
Hamilton is the bookies' favourite to prevail this weekend and has vowed to give "110 per cent" in front of his home crowd. But Rosberg, the victor in three of the last four events, is on good form on and off the track.
Asked if he believed Hamilton would be feeling under pressure this weekend, the German replied: "“When I race at home in Monaco it’s a great feeling, it depends on the person. I'm not sure what he’s feeling - if he feels more pressure or if it’s a boost, it depends.
"I hope he is feeling a bit of pressure, that would be good.”
