SIR LEWIS HAMILTON complained about his back problem after finishing fourth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Several fans expressed concern for the Brit after he was pictured clutching his back after the race.
Lewis Hamilton thanked fans for their concern over his bad back after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Hamilton holds his back after finishing the race in Baku
And the 37-year-old revealed he was in a lot of pain as a result of Mercedes’ porpoising problem – with the car bouncing throughout the Grand Prix.
Despite his health problems Hamilton still managed P4 with team-mate George Russell finishing one place ahead to secure a podium place.
After the race Hamilton responded to fans’ concerns on Instagram, writing: “P4 today. Congrats to George on another great drive and an overall positive result for the team.
“Seeing online that a lot of people are concerned about me with how awful it looked out there. It means so much that so many of you are sending love.
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“I’ll be honest. It looks terrible and feels 100 times worse. Definitely some recovering and hard work with the team to do before Montreal to overcome this hurdle.
“Feeling better already, though, and motivated my [sic] to keep pushing. See you next week.”
He also took to Twitter to thank fans for the love, saying: “Even when it’s painful, still we rise. Thanks for the love, see you all next week.”
Hamilton also described the race as the most painful of his career and that he “prayed for it to end”.
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The seven-time world champion made his discomfort known during the race too – telling his team about his back via the radio.
But Red Bull chief Christian Horner dismissed Hamilton’s complaints, accusing Mercedes of blowing the situation out of proportion.
Horner claims Mercedes are making a big deal of the problem to raise concerns over safety, which could result in rule changes that would aid the team.
Unlike Mercedes, Red Bull have minimal porpoising issues and the performance of their car may be hindered by a rule change.
Horner said: “Look, it is uncomfortable but there are remedies to that [porpoising] but it is detrimental to the car performance. What is the easiest thing to do? Complain from a safety point of view but each team has a choice.
“If it was a genuine safety concern across the whole grid then it is something that should be looked at but if it is only affecting isolated people or teams, then that is something that the team should potentially deal with.
The easiest thing is obviously to raise the car so a team has a choice to do that.
“You have a choice where you run your car and you should never run a car that is unsafe.
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“But I think that is more for the technical guys because there are certain cars that have some issues and certain cars with very few issues.
“It would seem unfair to penalise the ones who have done a decent job versus the ones who have perhaps missed the target slightly.”
