Lewis Hamilton: This is how racing should be

Mercedes’ best result at Suzuka was Lewis Hamilton’s fifth place. The seven-time world champion pressured Esteban Ocon for most of the race, but his W13 car lacked the speed on the straights to overtake. His teammate George Russell finished eighth.

Lewis Hamilton (5th): “I was delighted when we started – the track conditions were difficult, but that’s how racing should be – a real challenge for everyone. I wish I had done more laps for the fans who were patiently waiting for the race, but we were running out of time as daylight was running out.

Talking about the race, I did everything I could against Esteban Ocon, but as we saw yesterday, we just didn’t have enough speed on the straights. As soon as I was out of the “airbag”, Esteban pulled away from me and I was unable to overtake, despite the great advantage in pace. I tried all sections to get closer, but Esteban rode well and didn’t make any mistakes, so fifth place is the maximum for today.

We have to get together after the last two races, draw conclusions and earn maximum points in the last four races.

Finally, congratulations to Max Verstappen. He did what he had to do and won the second title. We know the problems with our car and I’m sure the team will come back stronger next year.”

George Russell (8th): “We have to review the race to understand what could have been done better today. I think our car is faster than you can tell from the results – I could easily finish sixth. The fact that I was stuck in the pit lane led to the loss of positions – you have to understand what other options we had. After the pit stop I overtook well, trying to catch up.

All in all a strange day. At the very beginning, the conditions didn’t allow the race to run, both in terms of grip and visibility – the cars were producing too much spray. And we have to draw conclusions from the situation with the tractor, which was on track when we drove behind the safety car.

Overall, the team had a tough double streak – we didn’t earn as many points as we should have. You need to regroup for the last four races and get the most out of the car.

I congratulate Max on his second title. The result has been clear for a long time – he and Red Bull have done a great job this year.”

Andrew Shovlin, Chief Race Engineer: “Great performance from Max – he had a great year. As for our weekend, it turned out to be difficult and disappointing. Today we had a good pace but both our cars got stuck behind the rivals and couldn’t overtake them without DRS.

The track conditions were difficult, but it’s good that we were able to keep up with the race and satisfy the fans. Today it was important to make only one decision – when to switch to intermediate tires. Apparently it was optimal to do this right before the reboot.

When we surprisingly realized after the restart that there wasn’t much water on the track, we immediately called our riders to the pits, causing George to wait his turn and lose time. If we had called him for a round later, he would have had a chance to compete for higher positions.

As for Lewis, he did everything he could to overtake Esteban. He had a good pace, but with the rain in mind, we set his car up for high downforce, so he lacked speed on the straights.

Based on the results of the last two races we can say that we can add a lot so that the drivers have a faster car in qualifying. Then we can start higher with the leaders. We have a lot of work to do next week preparing for Austin. I hope we can get back in shape so we can fight for podiums.”