Lewis Hamilton scored his third straight podium with third place at the Austrian Grand Prix and an impressive job by Mercedes, who had to practically remake the car after the Englishman crashed in qualifying on Friday
Lewis Hamilton went from an accident in qualifying on Friday to his third podium in a row with Mercedes at the Austrian GP. On Sunday (10), the seven-time champion put together a very safe recovery race and finished ahead of teammate George Russell, who was involved in an incident with Sergio Pérez at the start.
Hamilton admitted that the 15 points were unexpected; after all, the weekend began with his crash in Q3. And the damage to the car, which came with good upgrades, was severe.
"What an amazing crowd we had here this weekend. I definitely wasn't expecting the podium, yesterday was a very hard day, the whole weekend was tough," he said.
The Englishman celebrated the 27 points scored by Mercedes in the race and appreciated the effort of the team, which worked so hard to rebuild their car after the crash. By the way, Russell also damaged his car with another crash in qualifying, meaning double work for the team before the sprint race.
"As a team, a third and a fourth place were great points for us to keep moving forward from here. I especially want to thank all the men and women who worked hard in the garage to rebuild my car. I had a completely new car on Saturday, which is something I'm not used to. We made good evolutions in the car over the weekend, let's continue from here," he added.
Hamilton remains sixth in the Drivers' World Championship, but ever closer to Russell. The young Briton now has 128 points, while the veteran has 109.
The 2022 Formula One season continues in two weeks, July 22-24, at the French Grand Prix in Paul Ricard.