Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has offered his apologies after he was handed a five-second time penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly in the pit lane during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Hamilton had dropped to third position during the opening stint at Sakhir and a Safety Car period meant Mercedes had to service Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton on the same lap.
Hamilton drove slowly exiting the final corner, backing up Daniel Ricciardo, and while this was legal on-track, the Briton was sanctioned for driving slowly once he entered the pit lane.
Stewards handed Hamilton a five-second time penalty, which he served at his next stop, and he eventually recovered to second, via two team-assisted moves on Bottas.
“It's been a challenging weekend,” said Hamilton, who slipped seven points behind Sebastian Vettel in the standings.
“The start of the race was OK but Sebastian was in my blind spot so I didn't know where he was and I lost a position there.
“It was really hard to follow but we generally had similar pace. Under the Safety Car, I just misjudged it myself the situation; that was my fault, so my apologies to the team.
“I had good pace in the second and final stints and we honestly thought we could catch Sebastian.
“But the five-second penalty made that twice as hard. I believe it was the right choice to go with the Soft in the final stint. I think that was the best call as I still had a long way to go.
“Our guys have been making good calls all year so far. I tried my best to recover from the mistake but it wasn't quite enough. We still come away with good points.”
