Hamilton: ‘Ultimately, we were the quickest’

Editor

Lewis Hamilton had the race win in the bag in Austria, but a strategy mistake and then a technical issue ruined his afternoon at the Red Bull Ring.

The strategy call saw the four-time World Champion stay out under the VSC, while both Ferrari and Red Bull double-stacked their cars.

However, it got worse for the Brit, and the Mercedes team, as he retired to make it a double disappointment for the Silver Arrows.

Talking of the strategy call, Hamilton stated that he has to trust the members of the pit wall as they can see the bigger picture of the race.

“In those circumstances, you have to rely fully on the guys on the pit wall but we got to definitely work hard to try to understand where we have gone wrong on both ends,” Hamilton said about the call.

“I know everyone in the team will be feeling pain today but we have to try and take out the positives from this weekend. Ultimately we were the quickest and we should have won.”

After the miscommunication and the last of pit stop under the VSC, Hamilton dropped down to P4, and was then overtaken by Sebastian Vettel. However, his race got much worse as his Mercedes lost power, and he had to retire with a technical issue.

“It is what it is. There is nothing I can do about it,” he added. “All we can do is move forwards and I am looking forward to them getting the car back and trying to understand what the problem is and I know the guys will be working hard to rectify it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

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