Hamilton: Penalty a kick in the goonies

Editor

Lewis Hamilton is determined to see the glass as half full despite calling his Shanghai penalty a “kick in the goonies.”

News broke on Thursday morning that Hamilton would take a five-place grid penalty for the Chinese GP after Mercedes decided to change his gearbox.f

The Brackley squad revealed that it had been damaged during the Bahrain race and cited China as the “best place” to take the hit “rather than carry any risk moving forward.”

The penalty means will start no higher than sixth place on Sunday.

“It has been a good track to me for many years so I feel good coming here,” the Brit told Sky Sports F1.

“Naturally when you arrive in Shanghai and find out you’re already going to be starting five places behind wherever I qualify is a kick in the goonies, but you just take it.

“Challenge is another opportunity to arise, rather than looking at the glass half empty, look at it half full.”

Mercedes also revealed that the damage to the gearbox was not the result of his accident with Valtteri Bottas at Turn 1.

Despite that Hamilton says he has no concerns about Mercedes’ reliability.

“Not for me,” he said. “They change it and I go again. I don’t use it as a concern, I’m sure the team are focussed on it.”

Pressed as to what did cause the damage, he said: “It doesn’t really matter.”