Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes are ‘miles away’ from Red Bull after falling 32 points behind Max Verstappen in the world championship – but states mid-race damage in Austrian Grand Prix cost him an ‘easy second’ place having limped home in fourth
Lewis Hamilton fears his Mercedes team are well on the back foot in the battle with Max Verstappen and Red Bull after the Dutchman’s convincing win at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton could only finish fourth in Spielberg as Red Bull recorded their fifth victory in a row thanks to Verstappen’s fourth in that run which gives the Red Bull star a huge 32-point lead in the world championship over the seven-time world champion.
Although Hamilton could only finish fourth, the Brit had suffered damage to the rear of his car while running second at the Red Bull Ring.
Lewis Hamilton admitted after the race damage to his car cost him an ‘easy second’ place
Hamilton lost time before having to allow his team-mate Valtteri Bottas (right) to overtake
‘I said before the race it would be very hard to beat Max, of course,’ he told Sky Sports F1.
‘It was obviously frustrating to lose so much downforce in the rear of car and not hold onto second place. A lot of points were lost today.
‘I wasn’t going over kerbs more than anyone else so I have no idea where it happened but there was a lot of damage.
Max Verstappen led every lap at he Red Bull Ring before taking a dominant victory on Sunday
‘I would have been second when all of a sudden it broke.
‘It would have been an easy second generally, but obviously we were not able to catch those guys [Red Bull].
Despite Mercedes finishing second, Hamilton admits his team are still well off the pace of Red Bull and admits that unless they upgrade their car over the summer, he expects Red Bull to continue their recent domination.
‘We are miles away from them so we have a lot of work to do. We need all hands on deck which I know we already are,’ he added.
Bottas finished second in front of McLaren’s Lando Norris as they greet each other post race
‘They have brought a lot of upgrades these past few races and we haven’t brought any.
‘So we need to bring some and find as much performance as possible otherwise this will be the result most often.’
Verstappen’s victory was his third in a row, and he led every single lap as he finished in front of Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who took second narrowly in front of the impressive Lando Norris who took a deserving third for McLaren.
Hamilton will hope his Mercedes will find better performance at his home race at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.