Lewis Hamilton revealed that he was “grateful” to have finished Saturday’s Sprint race at the Red Bull Ring.
Hamilton was set to begin the Sprint from P10 after his Q3 crash on Friday. However, he was promoted to P9 after Sergio Perez’s Q3 laps as well as the quickest Q2 lap had been deleted.
The Briton had contacts with Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez at the start, but kept going. In the end, Hamilton crossed the finish line in 8th place and scored 1 point.
“I just got a bit of wheelspin, and was under attack from the cars around me,” he commented on what had happened at the start.
“And then Pierre just moved over on me, so I had nowhere to go.
“Same thing [with Perez], so lucky. I’m just grateful to have finished, and I managed to get one point!”
Hamilton also said that his car was damaged: “It definitely wasn’t the same as this morning, but it was drivable.
“Something’s wrong with the steering. Probably corner weights could be off. Could have big toe-in on the front right, or something like that.”
Hamilton was chasing Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher during the race, but only managed to pass the German. The Mercedes driver stated that the Ferrari-powered cars looked to be too difficult opponents for them.
“The Ferrari power is just too much for us at the moment.
“I don’t know if it’s drag, or if it’s power, it’s difficult to quantify which one it is.
“It wasn’t particularly the most fun of races, it didn’t feel that quick. But as I said, I think there was something not right with the car after that [the start].
“But a big, big thank you to my team for putting the car together. They worked crazy hard overnight and this morning to keep us in the race, so I hope tomorrow is a bit of a better.”
