Lewis Hamilton has apologised to Mercedes for the pit-lane incident which cost him a five-second penalty in the Bahrain Grand Prix, conceding the blame lies solely with him.
Ferrari's gamble to make an early pit stop handed the advantage to Sebastian Vettel, who took over the lead of the race following a Safety Car period which prompted Mercedes to stack both of its drivers in the pits. Hamilton slowed significantly on pit entry, delaying Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in the process, and later received a time penalty for being adjudged to have slowed unnecessarily.
A slow first-stop, coupled with the extra five seconds spent in the pits during his second stop, meant Hamilton had to fight back past Ricciardo and Bottas -- aided by a Mercedes pit call to switch it's drivers around -- to recover to second place.