Dennis: Hamilton will bounce back from ‘disaster’

McLAREN boss Ron Dennis believes Lewis Hamilton will mentally take stock over the next few days before regaining his competitive edge.

Hamilton was yesterday in no mood to dissect in detail a Bahrain Grand Prix in which he appeared far from his cool, composed self, storming away from the track after labelling it “a disaster”.

His mistake in practice on Friday when he wrecked his McLaren by slamming broadside into a tyre wall at over 100mph was one thing.

But his two errors in two mad minutes at the start of the race were quite another, and totally out of character for the 23-year-old who ultimately lost the lead in the world title race.

Hamilton made more unforced errors in three days in Bahrain than he made throughout the entirety of his debut season last year.

Whether it was just a bad weekend at the office, or if Hamilton had other issues on his mind, time will tell at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona later this month.

Between now and then, Hamilton is certain to sift through the mental wreckage of the worst performance of his 20 grands prix career as he limped home a miserable 13th. Once that is done, he will undoubtedly draw on the experience, ensuring normal service will be resumed in Spain.

“If you’re a competitive person, you’re hard on yourself,” said Dennis.

“I’ve said many times I don’t think I’m the exception to the rule in this team: we’re not great losers.

“We’re fighters, and when you don’t think you’ve done a particularly good job, you go away and all you want is for the next race to come because you know if nothing else changes, you’re going to be more competitive.

Hamilton initially failed to trigger the anti-stall mechanism off the grid that temporarily left him stranded as the field swarmed past.

Then early on lap two he ploughed into the back of old adversary Fernando Alonso, destroying his nose cone and damaging other areas of the car that led to a lack of pace for the remainder of the race.

“What happens is you rationalise everything for a couple of days, go through a mental dip and then you come back,” added Dennis.