Lewis Hamilton was yesterday the only Mercedes driver to finish the São Paulo Grand Prix of Formula 1. He crossed the finish line in a modest eighth place, unable to fight for the podium as it seemed possible in the early stages of the race at Interlagos.
The seven-time world champion believes that he performed better than in the sprint race, but he has no explanations for the difficulties experienced throughout the entire round: ‘I feel like I had a better race than on Saturday, in terms of how I managed the tires to the best of my abilities. It’s hard to say why we had so many difficulties this weekend. There are moments when this car works and others when it doesn’t. It’s very inconsistent throughout the lap and we need to understand that. In the race, we were slow on the straights, but still sliding in the corners, so it was difficult.’
Although admitting it was a race to forget, Hamilton also hopes that lessons will be learned from it: ‘We will go away and analyze things to understand what we should have done differently. It was a forgettable day, but hopefully there will also be many learnings from it. I am also very proud of everyone in the team. They are still working as hard as they can and keeping their heads up. That’s what we have to continue doing and we will continue to strive to improve.’
