02/11/2022
NEWS STORY
Though he feels Mercedes threw away its chance of its first win of 2022, Lewis Hamilton is buoyed by latest upgrades as he scores second successive runner-up finish.
Not for the first time, Lewis Hamilton spent much of the race arguing with his team over its tyre strategy, and though Pete Bonnington insisted that the correct call had been made and that the race "would come" to the Briton as the Red Bulls struggled, the seven-time world champion's worst fears were ultimately realised.
"I was so close I think in that first stint, but I think the Red Bull was just clearly too fast today," he admitted.
"Ultimately maybe they had the better tyre strategy," he continued. "I'm not sure the hard was the right tyre in the end."
While the Bulls started on used softs, the Mercedes pair started on fresh mediums, subsequently switching to hards while their rivals opted for the mediums.
"I thought maybe one of the two Mercedes should have a soft to be able to attack," he added. "So, when both Red Bulls and everyone behind took their tyres off I thought shoot.
"It was OK in the first stint, but the hard tyre was just offset.
"Nonetheless to be this close, to have two seconds back-to-back, I'm so, so proud and so grateful to the team. I think the race pace was generally quite good it was just; we were offset on tyres most of the time.
"There are so many positives" he insisted. "The upgrade really, really worked in the last race. We still have improvements to make, which we probably won't make the rest of the year, but we know exactly where we need to improve for next year."
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