Lewis Hamilton has pinpointed two moments as decisive to finishing second behind Valtteri Bottas in Azerbaijan.
The world champion would shadow his Mercedes teammate throughout Sunday’s race in Baku but couldn’t get close enough to attempt an overtake.
Hamilton would come closest in the final laps, getting within DRS range, but believed the race was decided well before then.
“I didn’t get the job done in qualifying, he [Bottas] did,” he told Sky Sports.
“And then in the race, I was too friendly at Turn 1 and basically gave it to him. He drove a fantastic race and made no mistakes so he deserved the win this weekend.”
The result maintained Mercedes’ 100% record of 1-2 finishes this season and given his patchy history in Baku, Hamilton wasn’t leaving disappointed.
“This is not our strongest race of the season and has always been a difficult race for me, so this is a really good result considering,” Lewis stated.
“It was a fantastic result for the team. Valtteri did an exceptional job this weekend and it was a bit of an under-par performance from myself so I just need to work hard.
“It is not that I don’t enjoy [it], I just struggle here,” Hamilton added. “There are certain races I struggle and I can’t really point it out. I got quicker at the end but it was too late by then.”
