Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton fought for the first victory of the season in Silverstone, but he believes that the deficit in the performance of the car, despite the improvements, made it impossible for him to remain competitive for the triumph until the very end.The seven-time champion has won in each of the previous 14 seasons in the championship, but this year is without a triumph after the tenth weekend due to the difficulties his team faced when designing the car under the new rules.
Mercedes came to the British Grand Prix with improvements, but Hamilton failed to triumph in a chaotic race.
“I did my best. I tried to catch the Ferraris, they were too fast – congratulations to Carlos. I ended up fighting with Sergio Perez, they are too fast on the straights. I am grateful for the hard work of the team, they improved the car. We closed the gap to the fastest, we have to keep working,” said Hamilton.
During the race, the Brit found himself in a strategic clash with the Ferraris, but despite changing the tires after the safety vehicle came out, he overtook Sergio Perez in the Red Bull, which has a higher top speed than the Mercedes, towards the end of the race.
“During the entire race I was chasing the leaders, I had an excellent pace on both medium-hard and hard tires. In the end it became difficult – Red Bull was behind me and they are very fast on the straights. We have to work on it. It’s a big deal for us to be on the podium and I’m glad that everyone is fine after the terrible incident at the start of the race,” concluded the 37-year-old Briton.
After ten races, Hamilton has 93 points and occupies the sixth position in the championship. The next race on the program is on July 10 in Austria at the “Red Bull Ring” track.
