Lewis Hamilton bounced back from a crash in qualifying to bag a third F1 podium in a row at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Having started well behind the frontrunners and struggled in a fight with the Haas cars during Saturday’s Sprint, the seven-time world champion fought hard to earn third place on Sunday.
In the end, the result was a comfortable one for Hamilton in an almost-completely fresh car following his high-speed shunt.
“Definitely [a good result],” he told Sky F1. “Especially after a difficult Friday with the crash and I said sorry to the team of course but I’m so proud of everyone for rebuilding the car.
“I don’t know what they’ll do with the bits we destroyed but hopefully there’ll be some new, better bits to come in after that. So this is a great recovery for us as a team.
“Third and fourth, it’s really good points and we’ve got to keep our heads down and keep chipping away. We’re slowly eating into the guys ahead but they’re still pretty quick.”
Mercedes took Hamilton’s podium in Canada as a bonus before feeling that better was possible in Silverstone. Despite the chance of more without the crash, the Austrian Grand Prix result was very much a boon to Hamilton.
He noted: “I do feel like, every now and then, our qualifying pace looks like it could be in the top two or three - obviously with the crash that wasn’t possible.
“Then a completely new car, everything stripped. New chassis, same engine, change of gearbox... First you don’t want to damage the car again. It definitely didn’t feel exactly the same but it was very close and it seemed to get a bit better as I got more dialled in.”
