Lewis Hamilton admitted the first-corner incident that caused his Japanese Grand Prix to go disastrously wrong within seconds of the start was his own fault.
The McLaren driver made a poor getaway from pole position and then, while trying to repass Kimi Raikkonen at turn one, locked up heavily, ran wide and forced the Ferrari off the circuit.
After an unscheduled pit stop to replace the damaged tyre and later a drive-through penalty, Hamilton dropped out of contention for a points finish and came home a lowly 12th.
When asked by ITV Sport’s Louise Goodman if he regretted the move, Hamilton replied: “Of course.
“You can always look back and wish you did something else, but I made a mistake and I paid for it.
“This sort of thing happens, you’ve just got to keep your head up and keep going.”
Hamilton was involved in a second controversial incident when he clashed with championship rival Felipe Massa on lap two.
This time the stewards threw the book at the Brazilian, handing him a drive-through penalty – but Hamilton felt Massa had been guilty of a more serious offence than his own.
“We both got the same penalty but I didn’t hit anyone and he did, so I guess that’s just the name of the game,” he said.
Massa salvaged one point from the afternoon to trim Hamilton’s title lead to six points.
The Briton insisted he would not be taking a more conservative approach to the last two races, however – and vowed to win them both.
“I don’t think it makes any difference,” he said.
“I lost one point today, which I guess is damage limitation.
“We’ll move onto next week. We’ll still be as competitive and we’re going to make sure we win the last two races.
“We plan on winning. Not at any cost, but we plan on winning.”
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