Lewis Hamilton has explained his intention behind a late-race radio message in the Australian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver was running in P4, behind teammate George Russell who had benefited from making a pit-stop during an earlier Safety Car period to get ahead of the seven-time World Champion into third place. During the closing stages of the event, Hamilton was heard telling engineer Pete Bonnington over the radio: "You guys put me in a really difficult position."
Hamilton reveals what he meant in radio message
Hamilton has since clarified that the comment was not related to the changing of race positions between himself and Russell. Instead, he says it was a reference to the overheating that his W13 was experiencing. "Basically, I couldn't race for position because the car was overheating, so I had to back off," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.com , after the race.
Hamilton happy with "amazing" result for Mercedes
Given the team's struggles since the start of the 2022 campaign, Hamilton was thrilled with their result in Australia, which has enabled them to take second place in the Constructors' Championship ahead of Red Bull. "It's an amazing result for us as a team," he explained. "Honestly, it's such a positive. We were 1.2 seconds off, I think, on Friday. And it wasn't looking spectacular at that point. "We did some great work overnight, qualifying on the third row, and then great starts. I was up in third. "It felt amazing to be fighting, or feel like we're fighting for a podium in that moment. But obviously we couldn't hold the pace of the Red Bulls."
Mercedes have extracted "the most they could" points-wise
Hamilton thinks that the Silver Arrows have come away from the first three races of the season with a solid haul of points, though regrets that he was not able to finish higher than P10 in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. "Whilst we haven't necessarily improved the car over these three races, I think we've really extracted the most we could points-wise," Hamilton said. "I think from my side, I let the team down in the last race and didn't get the points. But to come away with this result is great."
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