Hamilton: I didn’t expect to be on the podium

Lewis Hamilton is happy with the results of the Mexico City Grand Prix…

Question: Lewis, great race. Are you happy with second place?
Lewis Hamilton: Congratulations Max on his victory. Yes, great day. I didn’t expect to be on stage. The weekend started difficult, at the beginning of the race I just controlled myself and then I tried to control the condition of the tires, reach the maximum and move forward.

Then it became clear that I could match Carlos’ pace and we made a cut, taking the lead due to an early pit stop. The team has done an excellent job with the strategy. Well, the red flag played into our hands, allowing us to change tires – I didn’t know if the Medium would last that long. I tried to close the gap with Max, but he was already far away. This is a great result for the team, I am very proud of everyone.

Question: During training you were not satisfied with the car, what did you change?
Lewis Hamilton: They didn’t change anything… In qualifying the car behaved nervously with a small amount of fuel, but in the race it stabilized, it was pleasant to drive. This weekend we found a very good setup for the race, and it worked well with the tires. I like it. I was hoping I could get close to Max, maybe next week.

Question: On the last lap you left the best lap of the race behind, so you could have improved before that?
Lewis Hamilton: Certainly. I could have gone faster, at some point I decided I had saved enough tire life and decided to close the gap to Max. There were about 10 laps to go and I was doing 22.0 and Max was doing 21.9. It became clear that his car was faster, so I continued to save the life of the tires to maintain second place.

Q: Tell us about overtaking Charles Leclerc on lap 40…
Lewis Hamilton: To be honest, we really lacked speed on the straights this weekend. Before the first corner we lost about two and a half tenths, even before the braking started. I was only able to attack in turns 16 and 17 by getting close enough and using DRS.

At that moment I pressed all the buttons on the steering wheel, turned on the maximum power and decided to turn right. There was plenty of room, but Charles was very honest. But yeah, great race.

Question: In Mexico City the Mercedes car was second fastest. How much does this add confidence for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix?
Lewis Hamilton: Of course he adds. This time last year everything was pretty much the same. Then we were three tenths behind Max in qualifying, but he was able to pull away in the race. Now we’re just repeating what we did last year.

Next year we have to make big changes. Obviously earlier this year in Bahrain they were 1.5 seconds per lap faster than us. It is important to ensure that this does not happen in Bahrain in 2024. But I bet he will win 18 or 19 Grands Prix with this car.