Have Mercedes missed their best chance of a win in F1 2022? Lewis Hamilton makes "realistic" admission
After Verstappen suffered a slow pit stop and dropped to third, Hamilton seemed on course to ꦡtake an unlikely first victory of the season in Austin.
But Hamilton agonisingly missed out on the chance to end his and Mercedes’ win drought amid a difficult campaign when 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Verstappen fought back past 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Charles Leclerc’s Ferra🎉ri and then overtook him with six laps remaining.
The seven-time world champion urged Mercedes to remain realistic heading into final three races of the season after acknowledging part of the reason he was able to challenge for the win at COTA was because engine-related grid penalties had put Leclerc and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Sergio Perez out of position.
“I think we really need to be realistic,” ಌHamilton said. “The Red Bull car has been the fastest car by far all year and it is stil🌠l the fastest car.
“Today we were in the position we're in through a lot of the races, through reliability. You know if Charles was there, if Perez was there, for example, it wo൩uld have been a different race, because they would have been ahead of us, we would have been on the third row.”
Hamilton, who sent a defiant message by insisting he is “still here” and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:ready to take Mercedes “to the top” once thꦫey have a car capable of challenging Red Bull and Ferrari on merit, adไmitted the team's best shot of winning before the end of the year has likely passed.
“It was great to have started third and been in position to fight,ꦬ” Hamilton added. “But out of true pace, they've been ahead of us all weekend and they were today and they will be the next three races.
“So unless something drastic happens to any more of them, for example, then it's highly unlikely that we will have the true pace to be𒀰 able to compete with them. But we'll give it everything we've got. We're working on making a car that can fight with them.
“But I think today shows that our teamwork was fantastic. I think, as a team, we operated amazing. I mean, he [Verstappen] had an 11-second stop, and he was be🃏hind Charles, that just shows how much pace they had in hand, to have got past Charles, and to have caught up six seconds, and pulled three seconds ahead of me at least, that shows some serious speed.
“But there's lots of🏅 positives, as I’ve said. Honestly, I think this was our best [chance of🅠 a win]… this one was probably one of our best."
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for wuqian0821.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the groun💯d, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
