By Jonathan Noble Saturday, June 21st 2008, 13:47 GMT
Lewis HamiltonLewis Hamilton apologised to his team for the mistakes he made during qualifying for the French Grand Prix that cost him the chance of overhauling the Ferraris on the timesheets.
Faced with a 10-place grid penalty as a result of his pitlane crash in Canada, Hamilton was hoping that he could qualify fastest so as to start in the top half of the grid.
In the end he could only manage the third quickest time after losing time with mistakes through the fast Turn 7 sequence of corners.
But with the knowledge that Kimi Raikkonen came through from a similar 13th position on the grid in 2005 to finish second, Hamilton knows all is not lost yet.
"He (Raikkonen) has shown that you can do it," said Hamilton. "It was quite a disappointing qualifying for us and for me. I have to apologise to the team because I didn't do a great job at all. On my first and second lap I made the same mistake on the exit of Turn 7.
"I went wide and for sure lost three tenths, but that is life, I was pushing and trying to get the best out of the car. I believe I did in most areas apart from that one. But we missed out and we will push hard tomorrow."
The imposition of the 10-place penalty has had a big impact on McLaren's strategy approach for the weekend - although Hamilton insisted it had not played on his mind when in the car.
"It doesn't help obviously, but it doesn't hang over you," he said. "You know entering the weekend that you are coming here to win. You feel comfortable, you feel confident and (know) the team have done everything for you to make sure the car is the best.
"(Then you) arrive and automatically you have a ten place penalty. Rules are rules, we will do the best job we can, take it on the chin, learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again."
