Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari’s performance at the Austin Grand Prix was “an incredible result” after he and teammate Charles Leclerc finished fourth and third respectively.
Despite underperforming in Saturday’s sprint race, the Prancing Horse found a good rhythm in the Grand Prix, with Hamilton placing fourth in Sunday’s race after overtaking his former Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Leclerec battled it out against McLaren’s Lando Norris but was unable to overtake the title challenger and had to settle for third place although he was named driver of the day for his efforts.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took victory and added more points to his sprint race victory, meaning he is just 40 points behind drivers’ championship leader Oscar Piastri in his quest for a fifth world title.
“Yes, a good result – an incredible result for the team,” Hamilton said after the race.
“Third and fourth, good points. It’s great to finish ahead of the Mercedes team, to get these points and even ahead of a McLaren. It’s definitely positive.
“Moving forward, even after a bad start. Lots and lots of positives to take from this and of course I want to be higher, but we are definitely on the right track.”
Hamilton was then asked if he regretted Ferrari’s strategy of sending Leclerc on soft tires first, but the 40-year-old decided to look at the overall positive aspects of Ferrari’s game plan.
“I think it was clearly the quickest strategy in the end,” he explained. “Before Charles stopped I was right with him, but coming out 10 seconds behind was far too big a deficit for me to try to catch up with and I couldn’t close the gap at all.
“It was a bit unfortunate, but given that we didn’t improve the car to be able to be in the fight a little bit, it shows that the team did a great job this weekend. We are so close but I didn’t get that podium and I’m going to keep trying.”
