Lewis Hamilton was able to produce a decent comeback to finish fourth the Austrian Grand Prix, but missing the podium was a “disappointment” he admits.
Hamilton had to work to do after Mercedes was forced to change his gearbox after Baku, handing him a five-place grid penalty for the race at the Red Bull Ring.
Starting eighth, he would recover to fifth early on and was clear of Kimi Raikkonen to take fourth after undercutting the Ferrari during the pit-stop phase. A late charge on the usually faster ultra-soft tyres to pass Daniel Ricciardo for third would not end successfully, however, as the Australian rebuffed his only attack to maintain third.
“Daniel’s pace was fantastic today. For whatever reason they were very, very fast in the race,” Hamilton commented. “They’ve obviously improved somewhere. I was giving it hell and wasn’t closing massively on him.
“It was down to a mistake of his at the end that really opened up the window. I think that’s good, those kind of things are good to see because I guess it shows where opportunities can be once you’ve put pressure on someone for a period of time. So yeah.”
“But if they can pull that out in qualifying, I think that’s going to be great for the rest of the season. We’ve got a third team that is going to be battling it out with us.”
To have a podium so tantalising close, as well as the opportunity to restrict the points loss to title rival Sebastian Vettel to just three was a negative for Hamilton, but the Briton remained positive after overcoming the odds with a smooth drive.
“I was thinking maybe I could have [overtaken Ricciardo], but he was in my blind spot so I didn’t know,” he said of their battle at Turn 4.
“So naturally when I was doing the interviews that was what I was disappointed in. I worked so hard to close that gap and get into that window, he made a mistake which enabled me to be there and to drive all those laps so well and then still come out with the same place that I was in is definitely difficult.”
“But actually it was a really good race, I didn’t have any problems with my tyres,” he concluded.
Finally, he praised his team-mate for an excellent performance to claim a second win of 2017, believing Valtteri Bottas can very much have a say in the battle for the F1 championship.
“Valtteri did a fantastic job today and yesterday, so he thoroughly deserved to win,” he said.
“When you look at the results, he’s also had a DNF as well. He’s generally had a better season I would say so far. But yeah, there was never a point that he was never in the fight. I think it was only you guys who potentially suggested that he was never in the battle.
“I always assumed he still was, and that just shows he still is.”