Lewis Hamilton called his podium in Austria a “token of my appreciation” towards his team after his crash in qualifying.
The seven-time world champion had to switch to the spare chassis from Saturday following his substantial hit against the barrier in Q3.
However, after gaining a few places in the Sprint, Hamilton did much of his grunt work in the race to finish P3 for the third straight race.
“I really feel great; I’m so happy with today, especially after such a difficult start to the weekend,” he said.
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“We were looking so good in qualifying and then I crashed, and it was about getting your head around that.
“The team worked so hard to build a new car from me. Naturally, that affects everything, it affects our budget, that affects so many people who have to build new parts so that’s never a good feeling.
“So to get up there and get some good points for the team is hopefully a small token of my appreciation.”
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 10, 2022
After arguably being the quickest man a week earlier at Silverstone, Hamilton and Mercedes were no match to the race speed of Ferrari and Red Bull in Spielberg.
“I don’t know why they were so quick here,” Lewis admitted. “We’ll just keep pushing. We’re not too bad, some of our laps were comparable so we’re slowly getting there.
“We just need to keep chipping away.
“It’s been a bit of a rough weekend, but I’m really grateful. As a team, we got a third and fourth, that’s great points. And we move forward from here.”
