Lewis Hamilton hailed Mercedes’ first double podium of 2022 as a “great result” at the French Grand Prix.
The Brackley-based team was once again in a position to capitalise on off-days for Ferrari and Sergio Perez, as the seven-time world champion claimed second ahead of teammate George Russell in third.
“What a great result, considering we have been so far off these guys this weekend,” Hamilton declared post-race at Paul Ricard.
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“Reliability is one thing my team has been amazing at so a huge congratulations to the team back at the two factories, the team here who, without them, we couldn’t get this podium and George did an amazing job today as well.
“This is progress, even though we’re not necessarily closing the gap as such in race performance, in actual qualifying performance, but this is great points for us and this is my 300th Grand Prix.”
But as temperatures soared over 30 degrees at Le Castellet, the race wasn’t quite as easy for Hamilton as it appeared.
“That was actually a tough race because my drinks bottle didn’t work,” he revealed.
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“I didn’t see my weight just now but I would imagine [I lost] around three kilos.
“It is enough! I am looking forward to downing the rest of this drink.”
Asked about his prospects for the next race in Hungary, Hamilton called on Mercedes to keep pushing for performance.
“I mean, it’s going to be hard to beat the Ferraris and the Red Bulls, you see they have their pace advantage still,” he said.
“But I’m hoping we will bring some sort of upgrade to that track and hopefully take a step forward closer to them.
“You know, you can see us in the race, we can at least lean on them a little bit, so if we can improve on it [in qualifying] it will be even closer.”
