Hamilton apologises for pit-stop mistake - Fulham Chronicle

Lewis Hamilton was left apologising to Mercedes for a gaffe that left McLaren group key Martin Whitmarsh with a smile on his face at the end of another tough day. Making his first halt after six laps, Hamilton headed into McLaren's gap field, obviously forgetting after 13 years with the Woking-based marque he'd changed to Mercedes earlier in the day in 2010. The 28-year-old had to be waved through by the McLaren crew before finally accepting new tyres together with his own staff. Describing his actions, Hamilton said: "I am so used to stopping at McLaren, it happened. I do not understand how I first got it wrong. I did so a (Button). He did that the couple of years before, but big apologies to the team." As he said: "Well at that period of the race I was laughing at least Whitmarsh could see the amusing side. I still have a very good relationship with Lewis and I am sure I'll give him a bit of sadness about it." Regardless of the mistake, Hamilton went on in order to complete third behind feuding Red Bull mixture Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, even though his podium area wasn't without incident. Duelling with team-mate Nico Rosberg after laps are stopped 14 by the final pit from the conclusion, the German was told by team key Ross Brawn to keep place even though he was far faster than Hamilton. The 28-year-old could not then cover his shame on the podium, and again in the post-race press conference, assuming he'd robbed Rosberg of his rightful position. The air was cleared in the team meeting that adopted, with Hamilton stating: "We had a huge team talk and everybody else was excellent. I said to Ross I would have let him previous, but he said 'no way. When I tell you it's this that I want you to accomplish, you have to stay because of it .' "So I am glad I stuck because of it and did not enter trouble in that feeling, but hats off to Nico - he did an incredible job and was driver of the day for me." Rosberg, however, was still far from happy, reiterating his comment over the radio when he pulled into parc ferme after the battle for the staff not to overlook his generous gesture, as he said: "It was a note to them to remember that I enjoyed the game."

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