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Formula One
F1: Hamilton Satisfied With Podium Finish
Unlike last season, Lewis Hamilton's third place finish Sunday wasn't controversial...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted March 14, 2010   Sakhir (BHR)
Lewis Hamilton is singing the praises of his team. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Lewis Hamilton finished third in the opening race for the second year running – but in contrast to last year’s Melbourne controversy, he will be able to keep the trophy after a solid first run in the new McLaren.

Hamilton ran fifth early on but passed Nico Rosberg during pit stops and then got ahead of Sebastian Vettel when the German had a spark plug failure.

“We had a good day,” said Hamilton. “I think our race pace was a lot stronger obviously than our qualifying pace. As I said, I got held up behind Nico for quite a long time. I was quicker than him in the first and last sector but it was too tough to keep up with him in the middle sector. I think we’re lacking in a little bit of down force compared to the Ferraris and especially the Red Bulls, but we’re not in a bad position.

“I think we just need to try to make a step closer to them which will enable us to compete for the win. Today, I think if I wasn’t behind Nico for that first half of the race, I think I perhaps would have been a lot closer to the guys and perhaps I would have a chance to compete with Felipe at the end. But things happened and I’m very happy with third.”

Hamilton said he had in effect settled for the position when he realized that he was unlikely to be able to pass Massa.

“I think there was a point where the gap was so big I thought I would look after the tires and then I realized I was quite a bit faster than him. I think I was half a second faster then, so then I began pushing and I think it got to 0.8s some laps, 0.3s on some other laps, so I was generally quicker but there wasn’t enough laps to catch up, with that kind of gap. There were five laps with perhaps seven seconds to catch up and once I caught him, it would take a couple of laps to get past at least, so I thought I would just look after the car.”

RESULTS 2010 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter

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