Two-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has laughed off “equalisation” pleas by Red Bull after Mercedes dominated the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
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Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg finished more than half a minute ahead of the rest of the field, but Hamilton said it was up to the rest of the teams to catch-up.
“I find it quite funny,” Hamilton is quoted as saying by The Daily Star.
“It’s an interesting opinion coming from an individual who has had so much success. Also bear in mind it has only been one race, so to already have comments like that is what I find funny.”
Hamilton said that when Mercedes returned to the sport in 2010, it had not asked for equalisation measures depsite being well off the pace of the all-conquering Red Bull outfit.
“It was a big step for me to come to this team who had had so many years of poor performance,” said Hamilton.
“They hadn’t had the success of other teams, but not once did this team complain to others in order to legalise things. They just worked hard.
“When I came to this team, I saw them making that progress and now we are the best team. They have done an amazing job.
“We have done that based on the same rules that everyone else has had and the same resources as the other top teams and we can be proud of that.”
Hamilton and Rosberg are again expected to dominate this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, with closest rivals Ferrari and Williams admitting they still had plenty of work to do to get anywhere near the 2014 champions.
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