Lewis Hamilton: In terms of pace, we almost didn’t give in to the leaders

The Mercedes team is on track to solve the problems that plagued it at the start of the season, and in Barcelona, ​​where the cars are tested for efficiency, George Russell climbed to the podium and Lewis Hamilton finished as fifth, although he was in last position at the start of the race.

George Russell (3rd): “Of course I’m happy, because I really had to fight for this 3rd place. During the race I sympathized with Max, on whose car the DRS system was not working, but we were not going to simplify his task and in my opinion our duel was clear. I don’t know what she looked like on TV, but from the cockpit she seemed interesting. I think we were both fast today.

Even before the start of the race I promised to climb the podium and this success was a confirmation of the hard work that is going on at the team’s base in Brackley. In recent weeks we have turned the tide and although we are not yet battling for victories, we are definitely on the right track.

I believe that a certain foundation has already been laid, which now needs to be developed. We’ve found a way to unleash the car’s real potential, and now we need to continue increasing the speed of the W13. If we succeed in that, we will be able to compete with Ferrari and Red Bull and stay ahead of them. But today’s race gave me pleasure.

Talking about the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix, our car was able to handle slow corners well from the start of the season, and now that the team has modernized it a bit, we’ve added both fast and straight lines. But we will continue to study the W13 because the car is still new to us, and we have a very important week ahead of us when we will analyze the information gathered this weekend.”

Lewis Hamilton (5th): “I’m glad I was able to recover after the incident with Kevin Magnussen at the start of the race, and I’m grateful to the team for continuing to work hard as we have clearly improved – it’s big . The car made an excellent impression, in terms of race pace we were almost as good as the leaders, only at the start I was just unlucky when one of the wheels got a flat tyre. But I didn’t give up.

The weather today is much hotter than the forecast promised, and everyone had a hard time as the equipment overheated. I don’t know what happened to my W13, but in fact I sometimes had to drive with the accelerator only half depressed to cool the car a bit.

On the straight I had to let go of the pedal, I tried to get more air into the engine, but in the end I had to let Carlos Sainz continue, although it was unpleasant. Especially after coming out from the tail of the pack because at one point I lost more than 30 seconds to the rider who rode last.

I assure you if you are so far behind you feel a terrible frustration, but you just have to keep attacking, grit your teeth and hope you can get better. The team told me I might be able to finish eighth, which is obviously not an impressive result. At least it allowed me to earn some points – but in the end I finished fifth, so of course I’m very happy.

The car is still somewhat prone to build up at high speeds, but not on straight lines, but only in fast corners. In any case, the situation is much better than before. I have no doubt that we will gradually solve this problem.”