Lewis Hamilton was not happy with how his Austrian GP weekend unfolded – even though it could not have gone better on the other side of the Mercedes garage.
Lewis Hamilton was crestfallen after the Austrian Grand Prix, despite George Russell taking Mercedes’ first victory of the season.
The 39-year-old had an eventful opening phase to the race at the Red Bull Ring. After starting from fifth on the grid, he was able to reach as high as the podium places – passing Carlos Sainz and his team-mate.
However, with the seven-time world champion at risk of a penalty for overtaking the Ferrari off-track on the first lap, he was ordered to fall back behind the Spaniard. From there, his race calmed considerably.
Despite the contentious collision between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris which handed Russell victory, Hamilton was only able to bring his W15 home in fourth position.
“Pretty shocking,” he replied on Sky Sports F1 when asked how he would sum up the race, before pivoting to Mercedes’ success.
“But I’m really happy for the team, everyone at the factory has worked so hard to get a result like this. Big congratulations to the team and to George. Well deserved.”
When that response was followed up by a query into whether it was down to man or machine, he admonished himself, saying: “Me, I’ve been pretty shit all weekend. Not for a lack of trying, but just generally slow.
