Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari’s performance at the Austin Grand Prix was “a surprising result” after he and teammates Charles Leclerc finished fourth and third respectively.
Despite his poor performance in Saturday’s sprint race, the Prancing Horse found good rhythm during the Grand Prix and Hamilton moved up to fourth place during Sunday’s race having overtaken his former Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Leclerec battled McLaren’s Lando Norris but was unable to overtake the title contender and had to settle for third place, although he was awarded Driver of the Day for his efforts.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed 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, a surprising result for the team,” Hamilton reflected after the race.
“Third and fourth, good points. It’s fantastic to finish ahead of the Mercedes team, get those points and even ahead of a McLaren. It’s definitely a positive.”
“Looking ahead, even after a bad start. There are so many positives to take from this and naturally I want to be higher up, 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 positives of Ferrari’s game plan.
“I think in the end it was clearly the quicker strategy,” he explained. “Before Charles’ stop I was right with him, but starting 10 seconds behind was too big a deficit to try to catch up with and I couldn’t close the gap at all.
“It was a bit unfortunate, but considering we haven’t been improving the car to be in contention, it shows that the team has done a great job this weekend. We’re very close, but I haven’t gotten that podium and I’ll keep trying.”
