Hamilton responds to Mercedes review denial after Qatar practice struggles

Lewis Hamilton has insisted he has no perspective on the decision to deny Mercedes a review of Max Verstappen's defence of the lead at the Brazilian Grand Prix,

Mercedes triggered its right to review ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend after onboard footage from the Red Bull came to light.

Almost 24 hours after the hearing to determine whether a review would be granted, it was decided the new evidence was relevant but not significant, meaning a review was denied.

Asked about the decision following practice on F1's first visit to Qatar, Hamilton replied: "I don't have any thoughts on it because I wasn't a part of it and I have been focusing on trying to do my weekend."

On whether he would be able to race wheel to wheel with his title rival, Hamilton commented: "No clue. At the moment, I am a little bit slow so I will try and figure that out tonight."

Hamilton finished second practice at the Losail International Circuit over four-tenths of a second adrift of team-mate Valtteri Bottas and slower than Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.

"I don't even know how big the gap is but I am off so I am definitely not close," he added.

On the circuit challenges, he said: "Driver wise, it is okay. It is all high-speed corners so it is not physical but the track is quite nice, no real issues.

"There was a bit of damage from riding kerbs but nothing too serious hopefully."

In FP1, Hamilton had complained of being down on power initially before damaging his front wing after running over a kerb.

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