LEWIS HAMILTON says Mercedes know the challenges they have and will come back next season even stronger.
The seven-time F1 world champion finished in fifth place in last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix with the race won by Max Verstappen. The Dutch drivers dominant victory secured his second drivers’ world championship with four races remaining.
Despite the persistent rain at Suzuka which saw the race delayed, with the overall three-hour race limit ticking down, and the two-hour window coming into force an hour after the initial start, leaving just under 50-minutes to run on the race clock, Hamilton said he ‘had a blast’ navigating the ‘tough’ conditions.
Hamilton was unable to take advantage of his cars significant pace advantage owing to a lack of straight-line speed and for the second consecutive race the Stevenage born racer didn’t spend any laps in free air.
“Once we got racing today, I had a blast out there – it was so tough in the conditions, hard to see and that’s exactly how motor racing should be; a real challenge for us all,” Hamilton enthused.
He added: “I wish we had been able to go longer and do more laps for the fans who waited so patiently, but we ran to time and were beginning to lose the light.
“In terms of my race, I tried everything I could against Esteban but like we saw yesterday, we were just too slow in a straight line.
“As soon as I pulled out of the tow, he was able to pull away from me, and I just couldn’t get past even though we had a big pace advantage.
“I was trying every line and got so close, but he drove very well and didn’t make any mistakes, so that was the maximum we could do today.
“Now we need to pick the bones out of these two races and learn our lessons to maximise the points we can score in the final four races.
“Finally, congratulations to Max – he’s done exactly the job he needed to do to win his second title. We know what our problems are with this car, and I believe we have the team to come back stronger next season.”
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