• Australian Grand Prix

Hamilton frustrated by 'silly' Webber

Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton had a race-long battle © Getty Images

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• Feature:
• Rain 1 Rules 0
  

• Race:
• Australian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• McLaren
• |
• Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton has labelled Mark Webber's botched attempt to pass him in the closing stages of the Australian Grand Prix as "silly".

The pair were chasing down Fernando Alonso for fourth place, when Webber rear-ended the McLaren heading into Turn 13. Hamilton had looked set to pass Alonso when the accident happened, but ended up in the gravel and dropped back to sixth place. Webber had to pit for a new front wing and finished ninth.

"It can be very, very frustrating if you get to the end after you've put all that effort in and you get taken out," said Hamilton. "I wasn't making any silly moves out there. For drivers to make silly moves like that is disappointing."

Webber apologised after the race and was reprimanded by the Albert Park stewards.

"I'm told he said sorry - he doesn't want to crash out of the race and neither do I," Hamilton added. "Maybe he wasn't thinking, because he braked so much later than Fernando and me. He had nowhere to go and I was his brake. It's been a tough weekend all round. I just want to move on."

Hamilton also criticised McLaren's decision to bring him in for a second pit stop at the Australian Grand Prix. His team-mate Jenson Button won the race on a one-stop strategy and Hamilton said he could have managed his first set of slick tyres last to the end of the race as well.

"I was in third place and everyone else didn't stop - but I stopped," he said. "I had already stopped once, and my tyres were fine and they would have lasted. Maybe I would have struggled a bit towards the end - but that is what all the other guys did. I was brought in for another stop, even though I would have preferred to stay out, but I didn't question the decision because I trusted that was the right one. After pitting again I had a 20-second gap to catch up and then I was taken out by Mark. All that wasn't cool."

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