Lewis Hamilton appeared to take a subtle aim at Max Verstappen after securing a remarkable podium finish at the British Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon. The Mercedes driver managed to cross the finish line in third after a titanic battle with Charles Leclerc towards the end of an extremely chaotic 52-lap race.
Hamilton fought tooth and nail with Leclerc through the twists and turns of Silverstone and even went wheel-to-wheel with the Ferrari driver at the infamous Kops corner. The 37-year-old went on to credit Leclerc for his sensible driving before making a subtle reference to last year’s high-speed crash with Verstappen, which happened on the same part of the track and resulted in Hamilton picking up a 10-second penalty.
“It felt long for a while,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 as he ran the post-race rules.
“A lot of things went against me. The gap was about five or six seconds to catch the Ferraris but I had a really good long period and I thought we could fight for the win but the pit stop wasn’t very quick and I was struggling to warm up [the new tyres].
JUST IN: British Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton scores stunning podium
“Charles did a great job, what a great fight. A very sensible pilot, obviously very different from what we experienced here last year [with Verstappen].
“We had to have a tire deficit to overcome it, but yes. A really, really amazing weekend.”
This year’s result at Silverstone marked just Hamilton’s second podium finish of the campaign, with Mercedes struggling to keep up with their Constructors’ Championship rivals throughout the season so far. He will be desperate for the Silver Arrows to maintain their newfound positive momentum when F1 returns to Austria next weekend to bid for another strong finish at Spielberg.
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“We’re still recovering, we’ve still got work to do,” Hamilton added when asked where Mercedes was after impressing at Silverstone.
“Many thanks to the team for all the improvements this weekend, but we have to keep pushing and stay positive. It’s great to be back in the fight.”
Carlos Sainz eventually took the checkered flag to secure his first Grand Prix win ahead of Sergio Perez and Hamilton, with a horrific first-lap crash involving George Russell, Alex Albon and Guanyu Zhou causing a lengthy red flag period at the start of the competition. The latter, who flipped upside down before sliding down the gravel and into the barriers, had to be helped out of the cockpit and was rushed to the medical center for precautionary checks before thankfully being discharged after being declared eligible.
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