Maldonado collision just blur for Hamilton

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VALENCIA, Spain: Lewis Hamilton remained tight-lipped on Sunday despite controversially crashing out of the European Grand Prix.

The 27-year-old McLaren driver, who qualified second, had lost second place to Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus and was battling with Williams driver Pastor Maldonado for third before the two collided and the Englishman wound up in the barrier and out of the race while Maldonado wound up sixth.

Hamilton, champion in 2008, admitted the fight with Maldonado was a lost cause as he had run out of grip, but refused to go into any details about the incident.

“My tyres were gone,” he said, “I don’t know where I would have finished. Over the last lap or so, my tyres just went – it was almost like I had flat tyres at the back.

“I don’t really know what happened, if I’m honest, I went into the corner and I didn’t come out. “It happened so fast, I really do not remember what happened. All I remember is sitting in the wall with only a lap to go.

“You put your heart and soul into some things, and when you don’t get the results that you feel you worked for, it’s very tough, but that’s life.”

Maldonado was later handed a 20-second penalty which dropped him to 12th position, but, of course, had no bearing on Hamilton who lost his lead in the drivers’ world championship to race-winner Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

He now lies third with 88 points behind Red Bull driver Mark Webber.

Jenson Button did manage to salvage four points from an otherwise disappointing weekend for McLaren after finishing eighth.

“It was a really difficult race to read. Obviously I got a terrible start and I think I was 14th after the start. I just got unlucky,” said the 2009 champion.

“It’s still not a good result but I had fun out there, that’s the main thing, and the car felt good at some times in the race. — AFP