Lewis Hamilton recovered from a badly timed Safety Car to finish a very solid P6 in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.
The seven-time World Champion was running in P5 but had to pit at the end of lap 9 as his medium tyres started to completely fall away.
A Safety Car was deployed two laps later, and he lost track position to Alonso, Stroll and Russell. He also ended up behind Ocon and Hülkenberg who had not pitted at that point.
“It wasn’t ideal, but obviously I got caught up with the Safety Car, but I couldn’t get bogged down in that frustration when I lost all those positions.”
However, Hamilton showed his class on the restart. He quickly dispatched of Ocon and Hülkenberg, and the 103-time Grand Prix winner then made a cracking move into turn 1 on George Russell at the beginning of lap 15.
A mistake from Lance Stroll at turn 16 opened the door to take another spot five laps later to move up from P11 to P6 in the space of six laps.
“I just had to keep my head down, get focused on attacking, and that’s what I did,” said Hamilton. “I got my head down and got right back in the race. I really enjoyed those battles.”
It’s been a difficult start to the year for a second consecutive season for Mercedes, but Hamilton feels an immense amount of pride at how they keep going.
“I’m continuously proud of my team for just keeping their head down.
“We didn’t have the pace that we had in the last race, which obviously isn’t the greatest, but there’s no lack of motivation in this team.
“We’re just working towards getting those upgrades, I think. It’s the beginning of something hopefully better in the next couple of races.”
After his brilliant gains following the restart, Hamilton clearly had the pace on Sainz, but he got stuck in P6.
He asked for more power over the radio during that fight, but there was nothing more to give.
“Nothing went wrong, but I just wanted more power. The driver always wants more power.”
The 38-year-old believes the reduction of the length of the DRS zone in Baku didn’t help the racing either — and the lack of overtaking backs that opinion up.
“I think ultimately they shortened the DRS this year down the main straight, I don’t quite know why they did that. We always had great racing.
“By the time you switched the DRS on [today] it was too late.”
A draggy car did not help either in the tussle with Sainz.
“Yeah, they’re [Ferrari are] a little bit quicker on the straight than us,” Hamilton stated. “Even with the DRS open he was pretty fast down the straight.
“Just following through that middle sector wasn’t so easy. I gave it everything.”
Photo credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
