Lewis Hamilton has calmed down following his early emotional outbursts over his frustrating Australian Grand Prix, and has said that he can understand the reasoning behind the team's decision to pit him for a second time.
Hamilton was critical of the team's decision to bring him in for a second tyre stop on lap 34 after the race, which saw him pit from third place and finish up sixth after failing to find a way past the cars ahead of him, saying that "the strategy was not right" and conspiratorially adding that "we'll find out" who made the call.
This followed a rant on the pit radio, broadcast on the TV pictures, where he labelled the second stop as being a "fricking terrible idea".
He added that he felt that the team had thrown away the chance of a 1-2 finish by opting for the second stop, which the team went for after other cars around him had pitted for a second time.
But having calmed down from his frustrating day's work on Sunday, Hamilton has said on his official website that he has discussed the situation with his team, and now understands what the strategy had been.
"The team explained their reasoning behind the second stop," Hamilton explained on lewishamilton.com on Monday, "I can understand what they were trying to do in trying to cover both Mark [Webber] and Nico [Rosberg] for later in the race."
He added that the team were simply caught out by mistaking the level of degradation in the cars ahead of them. Although Alonso in fourth place, as well as the third and second placed men Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica, lost pace as their tyres got older, it wasn't enough for Hamilton to find a way past.
"We are still learning about this year's tyres and the degradation, and perhaps we over-estimated the wear that the frontrunners were expecting to suffer," Hamilton mused.
"It's something you learn from, and we'll use that knowledge to help us improve throughout this season."
He once again reiterated that despite his poor result, his performance in Melbourne had been brilliant, saying that his had an "awesome" race. Hamilton had only qualified 11th after a poor performance in qualifying, but stormed through the field in the early stages to get up to third before his final stop.
"My race was awesome," he beamed modestly, "I really enjoyed it. I drove one of the hardest races I've ever done.
"I think it was a very clean race - I had some fantastic battles, made some passes and showed good pace. It's the sort of race I love."
He added that he was delighted to see his new team mate Jenson Button take his maiden win of the season in the Australian race.
"You can't take anything away from his drive - it was faultless, and he thoroughly deserved the victory," he said about Button's performance, "Every win is special: you always love to win, but if it can't be for me, then I want it to be my team-mate.
"It's good to see the team celebrating Jenson's win - victories are very important for our team because they not only bring everyone closer together, but they also help validate the work we're doing and the approach we're taking.
"After a difficult 2009 season and our regrouping over the winter, I think the win in Australia will make the whole team a lot stronger."
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