Hamilton “Stopping after Max would have been pointless! »

While he had won the last two editions of the French Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton must be satisfied with second place this year. The Briton thought he could win this race until overtaking on the penultimate lap of Max Verstappen, his championship rival.

“First of all, congratulations to Max on his victory, he did a great job today, recognizes Lewis. Red Bull had more power all weekend. After our difficult Friday, I am very happy to finish second in the race having led a good part of it. Unfortunately, I ran out of tires at the end. We lost a place in the last laps so it's a shame. »

The strategy of Mercedes is widely criticized, in particular for not following Max Verstappen's strategy when he put on the medium tires 20 laps from the goal. The Briton defends his team and believes that stopping for a second stop would not have solved anything:

“We were already behind when he stopped so we would have been behind no matter what, relates the Briton. All we could do was wait and hope the tires held on until the end. It didn't happen today but we will come back stronger next week in Austria. »

The Austrian team will now be the team to beat in the next races, and more particularly at home in Austria where the F1 will go for two races. But for Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes is not far behind.

“We have a good package, believes Hamilton. We just have to work and understand where we can improve this package, whether in top speed or stability. We will work hard to get back to the top.”

Find the analysis of the French Grand Prix by our experts in AUTOhebdo No. 2317, available Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands.