Lewis Hamilton did not expect a P3 and P4 for Mercedes in Australia however he feels that his team put him in a difficult position.
Lewis Hamilton and his teammate George Russell finished the Australian GP in P4 and P3 respectively. The team struggled for pace all weekend as the duo had to battle with the midfield teams such as McLaren and Alpine to get inside the top 10 on Friday.
Hamilton had come out in front of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez after a pit stop but the latter passed him quite easily on warmer tyres. Perez put pressure on Russell with his RB18 which seemed to have more pace than the Mercedes.
Perez also got the DRS on Russell for P3 and all this while Hamilton was 3.8s behind that fight. Eventually, the Mexican driver crossed Russell to take P3 before his teammate Max Verstappen retired from the race after he was forced to stop his car.
The car positions moved one position each for all the drivers handing out Russell P3. Later in the race, when Hamilton closed in on Russell, he said, “you guys put me in a really difficult position.”
Addressing the message, Hamilton said, “Well I couldn’t fight with them because the engine was overheating, I had to back off. So I just had to sit behind but we bagged as many points as we can as a team and that is great.”
Also Read: Sergio Perez expresses his dissapointment over Max Verstappen’s DNF at the 2022 Australian GP
Lewis Hamilton praises great result for Mercedes
With both the Mercedes driver finishing P3 and P4, it brings in a good amount of points for the team. Team principal Toto Wolff described the result of the Australian GP as the “best case” scenario of the fifth and sixth.
“It is a great result for us as a team,” added Hamilton.
“Honestly, this weekend we have had so many difficult moments with the car so to get ourselves fifth and sixth in qualifying, to have progressed as we have and to have the reliability, we definitely didn’t expect to have a third and fourth.
“George did a brilliant job today. I saw a bit of the battle of him racing Perez, I wish I could have been in it but nonetheless, we will take these points and keep pushing.”
Also Read: Christian Horner explains why Max Verstappen retired in Australia
