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Lewis turns blind eye to team harmony

MONTE CARLO, Monaco - Lewis Hamilton said driving with one eye closed was "virtually impossible" and then turned a blind eye to any visions of team harmony at Mercedes after the 2014 Monaco GP.

Hamilton finished second, which gave the lead in the 2014 Drivers' championship to victorious Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg.

He said he had struggled to see and had no answer to questions about the prospect for repairing their relationship after an acrimonious Monaco weekend.

He said dirt had found its way inside his visor during the 78-lap street race in the Mediterranean principality. It irritated him and reduced vision in his left eye but eventually cleared.

'I HAD TO CLOSE ONE EYE'

The setback, he claimed, undermined his challenge to Rosberg; instead he had to out-drive Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) to hold on to second.

Hamilton said: "I had quite a bit of wind coming in, I got close to Nico at one stage and I got some debris or dirt in an eye. I was driving with one eye, which is virtually impossible. Through low speed corners I had to close the eye, which made it worse, but with five laps to go it cleared and I was able to stay ahead of Daniel..."

Ricciardo said later he had pushed hard: "I didn't need to save tyres and we got close to one of the Mercedes in the end, but it was quite hard to pass. I tried to put a bit of pressure on but third was the best we could do."

Loss of vision was not Hamilton's only problem.

QUALIFYING ROW

He also complained several times about his team's strategy and was obviously upset at events during qualifying (May 24) when Rosberg controversially ran off-circuit down an escape road on his final run in qualifying and wrecked his hopes of taking pole.

Asked if he felt the problems between him and Rosberg could be solved, Hamilton replied: "I don't have an answer for you."

Rosberg was more conciliatory - there were no issues that could not be reconciled. "We've had discussions - and we have known each other for so long. We always sit down and discuss it and move on and that is what we will do."

Rosberg also declined to respond when asked about comments about his family background attributed to Hamilton from an interview with the official F1 website.

Rosberg said: "I didn't hear Lewis say that so I am not going to comment. It is easy for you to just invent something.

"Even if something like that was written, between what Lewis said and was written... I know Lewis would not say something like that, maybe to me, but not to the press... (news media)."
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