Hamilton admits world title hopes are 'hanging by a thread'

MOTOR SPORT FORMULA ONE CHAMPIONSHIP:LEWIS HAMILTON admits his world title hopes are "hanging by a thread" following McLaren's failure at Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix in which the British driver surrendered his World Championship lead to Red Bull's Mark Webber.

McLaren had gone into the race leading the constructors’ championship and with Hamilton and his team-mate Jenson Button one and two in the drivers’ standings.

But after their worst result of the year, with Hamilton retiring with a gearbox failure and Button finishing eighth after being lapped, Hamilton is four points behind Webber and McLaren eight points behind Red Bull at the top of the constructors’ championship.

“The final seven races are going to be hard. We’re hanging on by a thin thread,” Hamilton said. “If Red Bull continue with the pace they have, then we really don’t have huge hope. At this stage of the season, to be so far off and to have a DNF (did not finish) like we did, while we are still in the hunt for the championship, it’s obviously serious.

“It’s not a case of saying: ‘Oh, it’s all right, at the next race we’ll be okay’. It’s a case where we have to pull together everything we have, in terms of resources, the knowledge we all have, and to be the most united we have ever been.”

Although time is running out, Hamilton is convinced McLaren can rediscover the winning formula. “I have complete faith in my team,” he said, “and that when we get back (from four-week break), everyone will be attacking.

“As soon as the shutdown is over, I know people will be working from the second they’re back at work. For me, I’m just going to be on the tail of all the team, all the engineers, making sure they don’t miss anything.

“It’s just as much my job to kick them as it is for them to kick me.”

Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher has apologised to his former team-mate Rubens Barrichello after almost forcing him into the wall in Budapest. Barrichello overtook Schumacher’s Mercedes on the main straight on the 66th lap, with Schumacher pushing the Brazilian off the road and inches away from the pit wall before conceding 10th place.

“Straight after the race, I was still in the heat of the moment, but after seeing the scene against Rubens again, I have got to say the stewards are right with their judgment: the manoeuvre against him was too severe,” he said. “I wanted to make it difficult for him to overtake and I also showed him clearly that I did not want to let him past, but I did not want to endanger him with my manoeuvre. If he feels this way, then sorry, that was not my intention.”

Race stewards ruled that Schumacher’s move was illegal, and he has been hit with a 10-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix on August 29th.

Schumacher finished 11th in the race, the latest disappointing result in his underwhelming comeback season.

The seven-time world champion has had two fourth-place finishes this season, in Barcelona and Istanbul, but has never been in contention for a race win, and is ninth in the drivers’ standings.

Mercedes boss Ross Brawn defended Schumacher for his driving, and claimed the grid penalty was “pretty tough”.

“I don’t think for a moment Michael was trying to put Rubens in the wall,” said Brawn. “He was trying to discourage him from coming down the inside as he thought that was where he would be vulnerable.

“So he moved across to the inside to try and encourage Rubens to go around the outside.

“At the end of the day he gave him enough space. You can argue it was marginal, but it was tough racing. F1 is a tough business and these things happen in a fraction of a second.”

- GuardianService