After one of his strongest performances of the season so far, Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from the United States Grand Prix of Formula 1. The Mercedes man finished the race pressuring the winner Max Verstappen (Red Bull), crossing the finish line in second before being disqualified due to a technical anomaly in the car.
The seven-time champion said that the performance was not ideal, but he lamented the disqualification above all: ‘Overall, we still haven’t performed optimally. We had a good pace and I felt good in the car. It was tough to compete with those around me, as they were very fast, but we can be happy with several things. I feel optimistic for the future, even reflecting that we could have possibly won. Of course, it’s disappointing to be disqualified after the race, but that doesn’t take away the progress we made this weekend’.
According to Hamilton, Verstappen could have been within reach with a few more laps: ‘Congratulations to Max and Red Bull. They did an incredible job all year, dominated and were flawless. However, we were catching up with them at the end. I hoped I could make it, but I just needed a couple more laps. There was so much work to bring this update and it was tough after the last race in Qatar. I really felt like I let the team down, so I had to go through such a deep process to recover here. It’s one of those experiences of “it’s not about how you fall, it’s about how you get up.” I came here with the spirit of fighting hard, I felt great, and I’m really happy with my performance’.
