Picture Credit: Twitter/@F1
Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton registered his fifth podium finish of the 2022 season as he finished P2 in French Grand Prix concluded last weekend. However, Hamilton is yet to register a P1 finish this season. It seemed the Mercedes driver will finally get his first P1 finish at the French GP but Max Verstappen once again proved too good and Hamilton had to satisfy with a P2 finish.
With Verstappen pipping Hamilton at Paul Ricard, the Mercedes driver looks astonished by the Red Bull driver’s speed. Hamilton reckoned Verstappen is too fast. The Mercedes driver climbed up to second in Le Castellet after passing Sergio Perez off the start, before Charles Leclerc’s crash promoted him to second as Verstappen took the lead. From there, the reigning champion never gave anyone a chance as he gradually opened out his advantage to over 10 seconds.
Mercedes also had no answer to the Red Bull’s speed as Hamilton and George Russell followed Verstappen in P2 and P3 finish, respectively. Hamilton opened up on missing the chance to get his first P1 finish and said that he tried to catch up with the Red Bull driver but he was too fast. “I was trying to keep up with Max, but he’s just so fast,” Hamilton told RacingNews365.com.
“I was kind of keeping with him for maybe two laps, but I’m full blast down the straight and he’s pulling away. I think today was one of the biggest straight-line deficits we’ve had. If you’re losing three or four tenths on the straights, there’s nothing you can do about that. So we’ve got to work to improve that for the future. I’m sure there’s a couple other places that we could be better. If I had pushed them more, then maybe I wouldn’t have seen the end of the race in the same position.”
This is progress: Hamilton
The Mercedes driver was pleased with the team’s result and said they have made progress even though Verstappen outdid them with his pace. “This is progress, even though we’re not necessarily closing the gap as such in actual qualifying performance, but this is great points for us,” he explained.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing every weekend, and we’re hoping that we’re going to get a little bit closer. This weekend we somehow weren’t as close as we hoped, but he was only 10 seconds up the road, so that’s a positive.”