HOCKENHEIM, Germany -- Lewis Hamilton has hit out at "those who take joy in seeing other people fail or suffer" after his qualifying setback in Germany.
Hamilton looks set to start 14th after his car suffered a hydraulics leak in the closing seconds of the weekend's opening qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. The issue occurred when Hamilton ran wide across the kerbs at Turn 1, damaging the car, and while it was initially assumed that mistake had caused the issue, a subsequent Mercedes investigation showed a loss of power steering immediately beforehand caused him to go wide in the first place.
The reigning world champion had initially tried to push his car back to the pit-lane after the issue. Once it had been pushed to the side of the track, he knelt alongside it in a praying position similar to his now-famous pose after the engine failure which cost him a win at the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix and most likely that season's championship.
That's Lewis Hamilton's qualifying session over!
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 21, 2018
He looks distraught 😢#GermanGP 🇩🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/ct37KXvzFS
Shortly after he had spoken to the print media at Hockenheim, Hamilton made several posts to Instagram, including one which quoted former South African president Nelson Mandela.
Hamilton wrote: "FYI to avoid all assumptions, today was nobody's fault. When I got to the exit of curb of Turn 1, the hydrolics [sic] in the steering failed. When this happened the car pulled to the left and so I was forced to drive off the track and subsequently taking a bumpy ride before rejoining. Those big bumps did zero damage. These things happen and as always we win and we lose together as a team.
"Why didn't I pull over when asked. Simple. It's qualifying, the car was still going and I hoped with all my heart that I might make it back and they could fix it. In my heart I never give up so it is the hardest thing to give in and accept the car will not make it back. I turned the car off and thought perhaps I can push it back as crazy as it sounds. That's just me being passionate.
"To those who take joy in seeing other people fail or suffer, I feel for you. Whatever is happening in your life to hold so much anger and hate, I pray that it passes and good things come to you.
"Nelson Madela [sic] once said, We were not born with hate in our hearts, it's something learnt over time. But if we can learn to hate then we can be taught to love for love is far easier and more natural to the human heart. God bless you.
"Now tomorrow, I can't predict what's going to come. Good or bad I will die before I give in. All I can do is try to be the best me I can be and drive like my life depends on it!"
Hamilton's frustrating afternoon was made worse by the fact that his main rival in the fight, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, went on to claim pole position. The championship leader will start alongside Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas.