Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes driver ‘didn’t expect’ second place at Mexico City GP as George Russell reveals brake issue

Lewis Hamilton produced a brilliant drive to finish second behind Max Verstappen in Mexico City; George Russell was hampered by a braking problem when finishing sixth; watch every session of this year’s final sprint event in Sao Paulo, live on Sky Sports F1 from next Friday,

Lewis Hamilton hailed his achievement of a “great” second place at the Mexico City Grand Prix after starting from sixth on the grid to finish behind Max Verstappen.

Hamilton was left disappointed on Saturday as Mercedes struggled to get their tires into the optimal operating window in qualifying, but found a more satisfactory balance in the W14 in the race.

The result reignited Hamilton’s hopes of denying Red Bull a first-ever one-two in the Drivers’ Championship, with his gap to second-placed Sergio Perez reduced to 20 points after the Mexican withdrew from his home race.

“To be honest, I just didn’t expect that. It’s always a great feeling when you just put one foot in front of the other and make progress,” Hamilton said. Sky Sports F1.

“The weekend was very difficult compared to the last race, where we had just started. This weekend I really dug deep to try to get the setup right and I think we did a great job.

“Qualifying was a bit tricky and to be far behind the Ferraris we have to finish ahead of them to keep the constructors’ position, so that’s what I was pushing for today.

“To have made such good progress in the early stages of the race and be challenging for a podium finish and then second place is fantastic. I am very happy with the race.”

Hamilton gained a place at the start when Perez was forced to retire after a collision with Charles Leclerc.

He overtook Daniel Ricciardo for fourth place after ten laps, but got stuck behind Carlos Sainz, who had just enough speed to keep the Mercedes driver at bay.

Hamilton trailed Sainz and was in third place when the race was stopped by a red flag after Kevin Magnussen’s big crash at Turn 8 halfway through the Grand Prix.

Mercedes bravely put Hamilton on medium tires for the restart, while the other front runners were on hard. It paid off, however, as the seven-time world champion made a bold move on the inside of Leclerc, briefly taking two wheels off the track to pass the Ferrari driver and take second place.

Hamilton added: “I think the car is quite peaky in qualifying on light fuel, but when you put a lot of fuel into the car it just feels nicer to drive and I think this weekend and especially today for the race we I have created a very nice set-up.

“Otherwise just very good tire management. I enjoyed it overall. It’s not the most physical race because you can’t push the whole way, you save, you have to lift 200 or 300 meters. and coasting to keep the car cool and prevent it from breaking down.”

Wolff: Brilliant drive from Hamilton

It was the second consecutive event where Hamilton showed strong pace, after he pushed Verstappen close to victory in Austin but was disqualified for excessive board wear.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was impressed with Hamilton’s performance, especially on the medium tires in the second half of the race, when the 38-year-old set the fastest lap of the race on his final circuit.

“The smile on our face is because the car was strong. Once Lewis was in the open air we had so much margin in the medium. The lap times were good and the fastest lap at the end,” said Wolff. Sky Sports F1.

“There have been a few weekends now where we said we ‘could have done that’ but we didn’t. I think we need to qualify better. Probably with the speed on the straight we wouldn’t have been as competitive against Max, but who knows, the pace is there.

“It was a brilliant, brilliant drive from Lewis. We suffer from fluctuations in performance and sometimes we don’t really know if the tires are sticking. Just a few degrees of track temperature and you’re out the window.”

Russell explains the ‘terrible’ ending to the race

George Russell, in the other Mercedes, had a frustrating race as he found himself on the back foot when he got stuck behind Oscar Piastri in the opening stages.

Russell was unhappy with the timing of his first pit stop as he ran into traffic and was seventh when the race resumed after the red flag.

He overtook Piastri and Ricciardo but could not get past Sainz, who defended well and held on to fourth place.

During this battle, Russell overheated his brakes and lost a position to a charging Lando Norris, finishing just half a second ahead of Ricciardo at the checkered flag to finish sixth.

“The last 20 laps were terrible,” said Russell.

“The pace was very strong after the red flag. I felt very good in the car, I was right behind Carlos and just couldn’t quite make the overtake. Then my brakes overheated and we were afraid we wouldn’t make it to the finish.” .end and I had to go backwards.

“As soon as I did that, I lost all the temperature in my tires and could never recover it. It was like driving on ice.

“I was lucky to finish P6. The story of the weekend: another difficult story and that’s a shame because the car performed well.”

F1 heads straight to Brazil for the final leg of the US triple header and the final sprint weekend of the 2023 season. Watch every session of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with the race on Sunday at 5pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW