Hamilton: Fighting with Fernando gave me pleasure

The results of the Bahrain Grand Prix cannot please the Mercedes team and both drivers talk about the need to urgently upgrade the W14 car, which so far clearly lacks speed.

Lewis Hamilton (5th): “I gave it my all and I’m happy with how the race went. Today our company is already much better than in qualifying, and overall I’m happy with how I’ve worked.

I think the team had a great pit stop, but unfortunately our car is not fast enough yet. We simply don’t have enough downforce and we have to do everything we can to solve this problem as soon as possible.

We can say that tomorrow you should get all possible new items that are currently being worked on in the wind tunnel. It is necessary to work hard and try to close the gap with the leaders.

Obviously Red Bull showed impressive speed today – they were probably going a second faster than us every lap. But with all the other direct rivals, we could well fight at certain stages of the race.

Fighting Fernando Alonso gave me a lot of fun. The rider always hopes that he can regain the positions, but in any case you have to fight for it.

I had a great start, I gained a few positions and got ahead of Fernando in the 4th corner. Then I overtook Ferrari, in some stages of the race we had quite similar pace, I was fighting with Carlos Sainz but in the last laps he managed to get away. So it’s unlikely I could achieve more today, we just didn’t have enough downforce.

Congratulations from the bottom of my heart to Fernando and the entire Aston Martin team, they have done a great job!”

George Russell (7th): “I think we fought well and earned points, but I think my partner and I lacked speed today, and in such a situation you feel something like powerlessness, because in every lap we lost a few tenths .

We did everything we could to fight with rivals, but we couldn’t stop their attack. I think both Aston Martin drivers did a really good job today, and Carlos had a good race too, although we weren’t that far behind Ferrari. But this Grand Prix was very tough for us.

Lewis and I had the same tactics, and if I had a better start and got ahead of him on the first lap I would have finished in the same position as him in the race. However, 5th place, 6th or 7th – the difference is small, because we are here to fight for victories. The team should start upgrading the car in the near future and then it will become clear what results we can expect.”