Hamilton offers insight into Sochi and Monaco problems

Lewis Hamilton has justified his struggles in Russia and Monte-Carlo by small set-up differences which led to significant consequences.

The Mercedes driver has won two races so far this season but was clearly on the back foot in Sochi, but especially in Monaco where the Brit was nowhere near challenging championship leader Sebastian Vettel.

In both races, the culprit for the Brit's under-performance was traced to the difficulty in getting Pirelli's Ultrasoft tyre into its optimal operating window, a weakness which obviously impacted team mate Valtteri Bottas less, with the Finn winning in Russia.

"In Sochi, we had different car set-ups,” Hamilton told Motorsport.com.

"Initially it didn’t look like they were massively different, but just small nuances.

"For example, corner entry stability and balance, as opposed to mid-corner to exit, they [the cars] were set-up differently.

"I had a very unstable car on the way into the corner, so the way I ended up having to drive the car was with more understeer mid-corner. It was lots of complicated things.

"Then there’s tyre temperature, and how you utilise the tyre temperature. There are small things that we are beginning to see."

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Hamilton's specific brake bias settings compared to Bottas aggravated the issue in Monaco where the Mercedes driver almost lost the rear end of his W08, just avoiding crashing out as he rounded Massenet into Casino Square.

"Sometimes it’s to do with the brake bias," Hamilton explained.

"The last race [Monaco] it was more to do with the brake balance and the mechanical balance – and because we [needed to] do multiple laps [to prepare the tyres].

"By the fourth lap the tyres were in a better place than they were in the first lap, but the Ferraris could do it first lap.

"We’re trying to understand how we can get the car to switch the tyres on quicker. But in Q2, had I finished that lap, I was only a tenth behind Valtteri, so I would’ve got into Q3."

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Gallery: All the pictures from Sunday in Monaco

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