Lewis Hamilton admitted that he was not able to keep up with Max Verstappen during the French GP as the Dutchman was “so fast”.
Hamilton found himself in P2 at Le Castellet after having overtaken Sergio Perez at the start and Charles Leclerc’s crash. However, the Briton was not able to fight Verstappen for the victory. The Red Bull driver began pulling away after the Safety Car restart and finished the race 10.5 seconds ahead.
“I was trying to keep up with Max, but he’s just so fast,” Hamilton said.
“I was kind of keeping with him for maybe two laps, but I’m full blast down the straight and he’s pulling away.
“I think today [Sunday’s race] was one of the biggest straight line deficits we’ve had. If you’re losing three or four tenths on the straights, there’s nothing you can do about that.
“So we’ve got to work to improve that for the future. I’m sure there’s a couple other places that we could be better.
“If I had pushed them more, then maybe I wouldn’t have seen the end of the race in the same position. I had to also keep the car one piece and keep the tires there, so this is the best result we could get.”
