Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Hamilton feels for Alonso after Vettel win

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Lewis Hamilton admits he was thinking of Fernando Alonso after Sebastian Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix for Ferrari.

Vettel moved to Ferrari over the winter to replace Alonso, with the Spaniard opting to quit Maranello after five years without a title in order to join McLaren-Honda. However, Ferrari has made a big step forward over the winter and was able to beat Mercedes for pace at Sepang, with Hamilton saying Alonso was in his mind after the race.

"I was sitting next to Sebastian and I thought to myself: 'What is Fernando thinking?'" Hamilton told reporters after the race.

"I remember when I left McLaren and joined Mercedes, we were better the next year. I had a good feeling then. But he's almost done the opposite of what I did. It could have been him (winning in Malaysia). It's just strange how things turn out."

The weekend for Alonso was a disappointing one as neither McLaren made it out of Q1 or finished the race despite encouraging progress since Australia.

Click here for Sunday's gallery from the Malaysian Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.