Lewis Hamilton: I haven’t been at my best for over a year

• F1

After the first pole since 2021, many expected that Lewis Hamilton would have better results than the 4th place at the Hungarian GP, but the Briton did not succeed in his intentions. Lewis Hamilton was delighted with the pole position.

The Mercedes team expected great things, but they are once again faced with reality. “I haven’t been at my best for over a year,” Hamilton said. “So I think yesterday [Saturday] felt like it was me being back to my best”.

Lewis Hamilton believes that his car currently does not have the speed with which it could achieve positive results. There was hope that his team could be better than McLaren, but they didn't succeed in that either. Nevertheless, Hamilton is proud of himself and his team, and expects great things.

“It’s obvious we’re not the quickest, we don’t have the quickest car,” he said. “I’m really proud of myself and the job that we did yesterday to get pole position to outperform the world champion and the other two cars that were quicker than us.

Today is just reality. The reality is we are not fast enough. They already told me in strategy this morning I would be at least five-tenths slower than the Red Bull so the fight is not with Max. We were hoping we could fight the McLarens but the McLaren was too quick for us also”.

Mercedes expects better days

The experienced driver hoped that he could finish third, but certainly the fact that he finished fourth cannot be disappointing. Mercedes expects better days in the future. “I think we may have been able to finish third with a slightly better start, but fourth is still okay,” Hamilton continued.

“Max got a better start than me. I just got a bit of wheelspin and a bit compromised after that”. Source: CRASH.NET