Lewis Hamilton finished second in Austin, just over two seconds behind Verstappen. George Russell, his Mercedes teammate, finished 7th and complained after the race about several problems that had hampered him during the race.
Lewis Hamilton (2nd): “First of all, we must congratulate the winners; Red Bull did an excellent job and Max was impeccable. At the end of the race I managed to close the gap, it looked like we could fight for the win for a few more laps.
Our team gave it their all this weekend, you can’t imagine how much work went into bringing these new products here.
To be honest, it wasn’t easy for me after the last race. First of all, because of everything that is happening in the world and because of the big mistake I made. I felt like I had let the team down big time. It was not easy to deal with this, but the main thing here is not that you fell, but that you were able to get up.
“I attacked with all my might and I am very happy with today’s result.”
George Russel (7th): “Two circumstances influenced my race. First of all, a bad start cost me a lot of money when I lost three positions in one go. Then when we switched to hard tires our pace dropped sharply, I don’t know why.
In addition, we had problems due to increased fuel consumption, so we had to take that into account and select the appropriate engine operating modes.
The result was that we lost a second per lap to the leaders, and I fell further and further back. But when we switched to the Medium kit, suddenly I was almost going faster than everyone else, and in the last segment we managed to regain, I think, 12 seconds.
The seventh result is of course not encouraging, because today I hoped to get on the podium. It is clear that at this stage of the season the team is already fully focused on preparing for 2024, but we also know that there are races ahead at circuits that suit us better than the American one.
We will see what results we can achieve there, but we have to admit that the season as a whole did not go well. However, our job is to help the team maintain second place in the Constructors’ Championship.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
