Ferrari superstar Lewis Hamilton: Happy despite a mistake in qualifying

Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring ended on a high note for Lewis Hamilton; the seven-time champion crossed the finish line ahead of Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen’s spin, securing third place. Initially, only his team-mate Charles Leclerc finished ahead of him, completing the 4.326 km in 1:06.349 – 59 thousandths of a second faster.

However, right at the very end, George Russell’s name appeared at the top of the timesheet. The Mercedes driver stated that he had passed the accident site whilst only a single yellow flag was being displayed – and had eased off the throttle enough not to lose his time. Although the stewards announced they would look into the matter more closely, it was reported shortly afterwards that they had decided against penalising him.

Hamilton, who had botched his first Q3 attempt and had to rely entirely on his second fast lap, said after getting out of the car: “It’s fantastic that we’ve got the two Ferraris in second and third places. That reflects the hard work that’s been done at the factory in Maranello. The lads are really giving it their all all the time, and they’ve brought a few improvements and done a great job of fine-tuning the engine for this circuit.”

“I’m really proud of everyone in our team, because you can clearly see how much each individual is contributing, and the hard work is slowly paying off. For me personally, the weekend had been looking quite good so far, but I made a mistake in Q3, which is why I didn’t get the first lap right. That sort of thing always affects the second attempt, and the fact that I was still so close to the lads ahead of me makes me really happy,” he added, referring to his gap of 0.295 sec behind Russell’s pole time.

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