Lew pays penalty

LEWIS HAMILTON was cursing his luck after his rear tyre exploded in practice — wrecking his chances of winning the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Brit had been flying until the final moments of the session when his tyre shredded to bits, breaking his suspension.

Mercedes mechanics raced to repair the damage before qualifying but were forced to remove the gearbox, triggering a five-place grid penalty.

Team boss Ross Brawn launched an investigation with tyre manufacture Pirelli into the problem, which saw Hamilton demoted to ninth.

Hamilton groaned: “What happened is a concern. I don’t know what went on.

“They’re still investigating to find out exactly what happened but it wasn’t a very good situation because we had to change the gearbox.

“I just hope to gain as many positions as I can at the start. I have a lot of work to do, then it will be damage limitation.”

Brawn admitted it was hard on Hamilton to be bumped down the grid through no fault of his own — and questioned whether the ruling needs to be changed.

He added: “External influences have ended up in a penalty. The difficulty we have is with marginal cases and whether it’s aggravated by the driver.

“Ours wasn’t and wasn’t a gearbox failure. It is certainly worthy of being looked at. It is frustrating to get a penalty when the driver is in complete ignorance. It’s annoying.”

Pirelli insist Hamilton’s blowout was caused after he picked up a puncture on some loose debris.

Hamilton, lying fourth in the drivers’ standings, added: “The rules are the rules and I have got a penalty. I just got unlucky.”

His punishment means he will start alongside former McLaren team-mate Jenson Button.

But the 28-year-old insists there is no added incentive.

He said: “Jenson is just another driver. Another driver that I’ve got to worry about. We need some points this weekend.”