Lewis Hamilton felt he got everything he could out of his W12 car during Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, with the Briton unable to match the kind of pace shown by title rival Max Verstappen.
Verstappen jumped into the lead from third on the grid at the start and the Red Bull Racing driver was then untroubled until the chequered flag, while Hamilton was forced to watch his rival disappear into the distance as he defended second place from the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez.
Hamilton says the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team was unable to do anything about Verstappen or Red Bull’s pace across the weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and he is hoping for better pace this coming weekend at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace for the São Paulo Grand Prix.
“First, congratulations to Max,” said Hamilton. “That car was faster than we were this weekend and there’s nothing we could really do about it.
“I gave it absolutely everything and obviously a great fight with Sergio at the end but I’m grateful I could still at least get a second-place finish. It was easy enough to hold on – I’ve been in that situation many times before – but it shows how fast their car was when Sergio was that close behind me and able to follow that closely. He did a great job!