01/07/2019
NEWS STORY
Few will have been that disappointed that Mercedes didn't claim another 1-2 on Sunday, however, even fewer would have thought that the Silver Arrows would be so comprehensively beaten, Valtteri Bottas lucky to escape a late pass from Sebastian Vettel.
Speaking after the race, both drivers admitted that managing temperatures compromised their races.
"I was just pushing as hard as I could but just limited by temperatures," said Hamilton.
"I don't know really know what to say really," he continued. "I damaged the car, which was a little bit frustrating because I had to change the wing, lost a bunch of time and fell back to fifth. We were already struggling with temperatures so I had to just cruise back there basically."
Asked if without the wing change he might have been able to challenge for the win, he admitted: "We were lifting and coasting like 400+ per lap. So we were a long way down and even if I didn't have to do that we would not have the pace I think, but unfortunately that's just the way it was. Nobody was getting close to anybody."
"It was a bit more difficult than we expected," said Bottas, "especially with the overheating of the engine, so I couldn't really race properly, I had to manage all those temperatures.
"That's why defending was difficult and also attacking.
"On pure race pace I don't think there was not much difference," he said of the Mercedes compared to the Red Bull and Ferrari, "but once we had to start to manage the temperatures we were dropping back."
"It was an incredibly tough afternoon," said chief race engineer, Andrew Shovlin, "we were on the limit with cooling all race.
"We knew this was our Achilles heel," he admitted, "and the combination of ambient temperature and altitude were just too much for us to fight today.
"Valtteri did a good job to get on the podium, he was having to manage a lot and we had to give up a lot of performance to keep things cool, so we're happy that he got some reward.
"Lewis was in the same situation with temperatures and he was having to having to manage from start to finish. He was keeping his tyres in good shape but unfortunately his front wing flap broke on the kerb at turn 10 on lap 27 and we were losing too much time so stopped for a new nose.
"It was a shame to lose the place to Vettel right on the end, but it was just a consequence of all the issues we were having to deal with. Whilst temperatures were the headline item for us today, we weren't particularly quick even in qualifying, so no doubt there are a few areas that we need to investigate and improve."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Spielberg, here.