Lewis Hamilton: “I really enjoyed the race and got everything out of it that we could”

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!

“Even so, I really enjoyed the race and got everything out of it that we could today. Now we need to get our heads down and keep working hard to prepare for the next races, they will be coming at us fast over the next two weekends.”

“I was stuck in traffic and couldn’t make progress” – Valtteri Bottas

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas’ race was compromised at turn one, with the polesitter being hit from behind by McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo. 

Heading into the turn, Bottas was attempting to stay out of trouble as he had Hamilton on his inside and Verstappen on the outside, only for Ricciardo to nudge him into a spin on the apex of the turn and drop him to the back of the field.

He pitted at the end of lap one for the hard compound tyre but after losing a place to Ricciardo on the restart he was forced to follow the Australian for much of the race. 

A slow second pit stop all but ended his chance of points, and it was ultimately decided to pit twice for soft tyres at the end to go for the fastest lap and deny Verstappen an extra point.

“It was an unlucky day for me today,” said Bottas.  “As I turned into Turn 1, I got hit from behind and spun me around – then I was stuck in traffic and couldn’t make progress.

“I was giving it everything but it was hard running in traffic because I was overheating the brakes and engine, so I couldn’t get past the McLaren in front.

“The situation at the end with fastest lap was a bit funny, it wasn’t easy to find a clear space on track but in the end we were able to make it stick and at least take that point away from Red Bull. Overall, not a great day today – but at least the next race is on Sunday, so we can come back stronger then.”

Valtteri Bottas finished two laps down in Mexico City – Credit: LAT Images