F1 News
Tearful Hamilton reacts to last 'Hammer Time': "It clicked in that moment"
Lewis Hamilton has driven his final race for Mercedes in F1, with the most successful team and driver combination in Formula 1 coming to an end after 12 seasons. His race engineer Peter 'Bono' Bonnington has been by his side for all of those seasons, and while Hamilton debriefed his last race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he also spoke about the final 'Hammer Time' message he heard from his engineer over the team radio.
Since joining the German team in 2013, Hamilton has won six drivers' championships and eight constructors' championships, highlighting the success and dominance that they have had in F1 during their time together. However, for the 2025 season, the seven-time world champion will head to Ferrari in search of record-breaking title number eight.
However, there was time for one more fantastic race as a part of Mercedes, driving all the way from P16 to P4, making a brilliant last-lap move over his teammate George Russell in the process.
Hamilton "did not give up" in Abu Dhabi
Of course, during that charge from 16th to fifth, there was a 'Hammer Time' message for the 39-year-old from Bono for the last time, and while talking to Sky Sports about that, there was a lot of emotion on the face of Hamilton: "I think when he said it was ‘Hammer Time’, I did notice at the moment I was like, that's the last time I'm going to hear that. It really clicked for me at that moment.
"It was a really, really hard race, naturally from where I was. I didn't get as great a start as this one here, my new teammate. The first stint was really, really difficult. I wasn't losing hope. I was just like, it's not going as well as I thought it would. But I didn't give up, I kept pushing like come on, we can get there."
Hamilton started on the hards and then went on to the medium tyres, the only driver on the grid to take that strategy on, and it worked to great effect for him: "Then switched onto the different tyres and the car came alive. I had a massive gap to close, so I just focused on getting absolutely everything from the car and not giving up. I wanted to finish higher, on as much of a high and just give every ounce of me to the team as they've given to me all these years," Hamilton concluded.
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