Lewis Hamilton reflected on his day after finishing behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell in both the Austria Sprint race and in qualifying for the main Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton sounded frustrated with his situation despite an improved qualifying performance in Spielberg.
The seven-time Formula 1 champion had qualified sixth for the Sprint and finished the short-form race in the same position. Setting his grid slot for the main Austrian Grand Prix, Hamilton improved slightly by managing to go fifth fastest in the final part of the session.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing throughout and, in Q1, he found himself needing a strong lap on his final run to avoid the risk of an embarrassing early exit. He managed to do exactly that, but his comment over the radio to the team summed up how he was feeling about his Mercedes car.
“We’re just slow mate,” he told race engineer Peter Bonnington. And he still seemed to be a little downcast about how his Saturday had gone as he reflected on the track action at the end of the day.
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Hamilton said: “The Sprint was a little frustrating. I was able to get close to the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz but wasn’t quite able to challenge him. We therefore made some changes to the car after the Sprint and that helped. We were able to improve its overall balance and that enabled us to make a step forward. My final lap in Q3 was decent although my middle sector was a little bit down. P5 was better than we managed in Sprint Qualifying though so overall, it was an okay day.
“The adjustments we made to the car should help us in tomorrow’s race. I am therefore hopeful that we will have better race pace than we showed in today’s Sprint. It will be important to get past the Sainz if we are to be in the fight for the podium. Let’s see what we can do.
