Lewis Hamilton’s fight with Max Verstappen in the United States Grand Prix has boosted his confidence that Mercedes can compete for the world championship next year.
Verstappen won by more than five seconds after passing Hamilton with six laps to go. Despite seeing the team’s win-less streak continue, Hamilton was encouraged by how close they came to victory.“What I’ll take from today is that we had good pace, I am still here, and I know that when they build the car, I will take it to the top. We’ve just to keep on working,” he told Sky.
Mercedes brought several upgrades for their car this weekend, not all of which were used during the race, which helped the team further close the deficit to the front runners.
“I would like to say a big thankyou to my team,” said Hamilton. “Everyone back at the factory is working so hard and it has been such a trying year for everyone.
“We came here with upgrades, they worked so hard to bring those upgrades in and it really had an effect so we were closer today. I am really proud of everybody. Sorry I couldn’t get the win, I gave it absolutely everything.”
The fight for victory between the pair did not last long. Once Verstappen caught Hamilton he quickly passed the Mercedes in a DRS zone.
“We were in the lead and I could see he was closing a second per lap and I couldn’t really answer it,” said Hamilton.
“He came from so far back on the straight, I think they are like 10kph faster than us on the straights. And at the end of the straight our mirrors are vibrating so much that I couldn’t see where he was so it was difficult to defend.”
While Red Bull clinched the constructors championship today, Mercedes have an outside chance of beating Ferrari to second in the standings. Hamilton said he “cannot put in words how much it would mean to the team” to do that, “especially with everything that is going on and everything that has happened in the last race last year, what happened this year in terms of our car performance and what’s happened with all the news and everything.
“To get a win would have been a huge triumph for us all and hugely rewarding.”
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2022 United States Grand Prix
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hyoko
23rd October 2022, 23:52
Do not give up yor dreams, Sir. Keep sleeping
Webber fan
24th October 2022, 0:23
Why didn’t Lewis “it is the driver, not the car” Hamilton do that this year,
Dan
24th October 2022, 0:47
Anything is possible but if RBR and Red machines are equal his chances are very slim. Not to mention Russell will be better.
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
24th October 2022, 1:39
It is clear the average age of the first three commenters on this article cannot be more than 15.
hyoko
24th October 2022, 2:32
Out of the mouths of babes…
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
24th October 2022, 8:47
Given the rest of the comments, I’d say around 11. Some have actually answered sensibly, pushing the average up from 10.
hyoko
25th October 2022, 3:05
I’ll take that as a compliment, O Wise Ediacaran One
Tiaki Porangi
24th October 2022, 1:40
Assuming Red Bull are not cheating again, very possible – even with the doper’s advantage of illegally-developed speed that the RBR is showing off at the moment.
But if RBR are free to go over the budget cap and then gaslight everyone who dares even mention it – well, Merc had better open their chequebook as well then!
hyoko
24th October 2022, 2:28
And hire a real racer
MCG (@malrg)
24th October 2022, 5:27
OMG! give it a rest.
Wayne
24th October 2022, 5:30
Did the FIA not see max went off same place as an alpha romeo i think during q1 but ue didnot hav his laptime deleted. Was an interesting race. I dnt believe Russel should have gotten a penalty. Most drivers know to turn in from the out side even if avoiding suomeone i front is a dangerous acvident waiting to happen. He should have went wide.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
24th October 2022, 5:32
It’s nice to have goals and dreams, but surely Sir Lewis Hamilton knows the reality? And the reality is Max Verstappen won 13 races during a season that hasn’t even finished yet, while Hamilton never managed to win more than 11, despite driving cars that can only be described as rocketships compared to opposition. The biggest margin Max had to rivals in dry qualifying was 0.4s twice and that happened in 2021. Just to show what an amazing achievement it is, Hamilton lost by 0.6s to Bottas in Spain ’19, who in turn was 0.9s faster than the next car. Most pole position margins by Max are within mere thousands of a second to at best 2 tenths. Despite than he won 10 races last year and 13 this season already. It’s so obvious Max is the best driver in F1 history and next seasons will prove it even further, you can quote me on that. Hamilton needs a car that is at least 0.3s to beat him.
oweng (@oweng)
24th October 2022, 7:25
You must think Hamilton is improving. You said 0.5 seconds before.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
24th October 2022, 8:23
LOL!!
Mayrton
24th October 2022, 8:59
I agree, Lewis just gets the benefit of the doubt whether he is at that level, based on his tally of WDCs. The vast majority of which were assembled without another car being even remotely competitive. The number of HAM-BOT 1-2s were staggering. So overall you would expect him to be the most cheerful and grateful person to ever have walked the pit lane. In reality we however see unsportsmanlike grumpy entitlement.
delphi
25th October 2022, 7:02
Rosberg could certainly hook it up and Bottas could do the same often enough. Perez doesn’t do it very often – generally qualifies poorly and races about where he should on that baseline of fast car / mediocre raw speed. Why ignore it?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th October 2022, 5:41
While I think hamilton had a good race, I was a bit disappointed he let verstappen through so easily, I know he tried to fight back after, but the damage was done, I think russell, while he’s been overall slower, typically fought better to keep position, hamilton should’ve risked more imo, could’ve been the last chance for a win this year.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
24th October 2022, 7:24
I don’t think he let Verstappen through easily at all @esploratore1. The straight line speed advantage of the Red Bull, combined with DRS, was simply too much to defend.
If anything his defensive move was a little too aggressive – as noted by Verstappen’s race engineer on the radio – and reminiscent of the one that had already put Stroll out of the race. If Verstappen had decided he wanted a little more slipstream before pulling out, it could have been nasty.
oweng (@oweng)
24th October 2022, 7:28
I agree about the straight line speed difference. He was about 9/10ths back at the start of the straight. I don’t remember anyone else making up that much. Usually about 5/10ths gap was needed.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
24th October 2022, 6:13
Well, it sure isn’t going to be Russell.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
24th October 2022, 6:45
Russell is still in his first year at merc hes only going to get better, and besides he already beat 7x world champion, lewis hamilton, in equal machinery.
MacLeod (@macleod)
24th October 2022, 8:40
Season is not over Lewis stil can catch George.
Mayrton
24th October 2022, 8:45
I like the chap but you have to say that Kvyat was already towards the exit with the same number of lunges. Frankly, it happens too often. George is at risk of being seriously overestimated.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
24th October 2022, 9:32
So that’s Hamilton and now Russell who are rubbish.
Mayrton
24th October 2022, 11:57
Russell Rubbish? Getting an F1 seat hardly puts you in the rubbish category. I am saying that if his name was Kvyat he would be on his way out by now. He is clumsy error prone while having been around for quite some time and needs to up his game. Hamilton is one of the greats but has no sense of putting things in perspective vs the luck he has had which contributed more to his tally than his level of driving.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
25th October 2022, 16:13
LOL!! Hamilton states how grateful to the team is, virtually every race.
Yes. Just like Max and Fernando, his winner mentality, means he occasionally oversteps the mark. But your constant ridiculous character assassination, just ensures that you have zero credibility on these boards.
SteveM
24th October 2022, 11:16
Lewis does still have the jump on George, but not by much. Most qualifying sessions throughout the season, Q1 and Q2 George is usually quicker than Lewis. Lewis then usually pulls a great lap out in Q3 where it really matters, but even then, it is usually less than 1/10th sec quicker than George. This weekend Lewis only beat George in Q3 by 0.047 secs. Italy he was beaten by 0.039, Belgium 0.041, Hungary George was 0.8 quicker, Austria George was 8 secs quicker!! (LOL), Silverstone 0.165, Azerbaijan George was 0.2 faster, Monaco George was 0.4 faster. For a young “rookie(ish)”driver, in his first season at Merc, to be that close to the 7 x WDC on one lap qually pace is nothing short of incredible.
superman
24th October 2022, 7:32
Don’t put too much effort in Lewis, you’re no Schumacher. Besides, George will bring the team back to its rocketship days with or without you.
Mayrton
24th October 2022, 8:44
Well, maybe but for now I think Karma is presenting him with an excellent year and wouldnt be surprised if it deems another year is in place given behavior shown last season, at the hint of some competition.
SteveM
24th October 2022, 10:55
It was great to see Merc battling for a win again, the more teams in that position the better for us and F1, but lets not forget Max had an 11 sec pitstop, lost more time spending 3 laps trying to get past Leclerc and then still finished 5 secs ahead. So with a clean race, Max would likely have been 15+ secs ahead of Lewis. That’s still a big gap, albeit a much smaller gap than at the start of the season.
iCarbs (@icarby)
24th October 2022, 13:12
Don’t see Max doing anything different to what Hamilton has done to countless others.
Rbr created a monster and the genius behind it just happened to have done his thesis on ground effect. Unless Merc aero team can match that I expect at least 5 years of Rbr and max obliterating teams, drivers and records.
Reference the pass it was inevitable no one was going to stop him unless they wanted to crash…
Think Max is on top of his game I applaud the skill and the improvements he is making but ultimately the only driver on the grid that can beat him in a “fair” fight is Hamilton.
MCG (@malrg)
24th October 2022, 23:51
Right now, I don’t think there is a driver on the grid that can beat him period. But it is hard to tell, Maybe Lando?
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
25th October 2022, 7:42
FDC can go from hero to zero quite quickly in F1. It all depends on the car, tires and so on. Every year it can change. So better be silent Sir.