Lewis Hamilton picked up damage in the early stages of Saturday's Austrian Grand Prix Sprint which contributed to his struggles against Mick Schumacher later in the race, the Brit has revealed.
Hamilton gained a place during the 23-lap dash, earning a point and a slightly higher grid slot for Sunday's main event. But he was made to work hard for it, after contact on the first lap and a protracted battle with Schumacher in the final few laps.
The seven-time world champion was the meat in a sandwich between Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly as the lights went out at the Red Bull Ring. It left him powerless to prevent his wheel making contact with the AlphaTauri to his right, which was sent off into a spin at turn one.
Shortly after, he was racing closely with Albon again, and the charging Sergio Perez joined in the fun as more contact followed. This time Hamilton's car picked up damage, which made it all the more difficult for him later in the race when he was trying to reel in Schumacher to move into the points positions.
"I'm grateful I managed to survive out there today," said the Brit as he reflected on his qualifying crash before speaking about the Sprint itself. "The team did such a great job to get the car back together last night and this morning. A big thank you to them and I'm glad I brought it back mostly in one piece.
"I didn't have a good start, then Pierre moved across on me at turn one. I don't understand why drivers do that when there's so much space to the right, and I couldn't do anything about it. Then the same happened in turn three with a Williams and Red Bull. I got some sort of damage, but at least could continue.
"After that, I was just trying to catch up. We are slower on the straights, so I had to wait until I was out of the DRS train to overtake the cars in front. That's why it took a few laps to get ahead of Mick. Hopefully we can race stronger tomorrow – fingers crossed!"
Despite Hamilton gaining a place and team-mate George Russell holding onto fourth, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff was not too thrilled about how the session went for his team. "After such an incredible effort from the mechanics to get the cars built and able to race, that was a bit of a disappointing performance in speed terms," said the Austrian.
"We failed to show our usual improvement in race pace versus single lap performance, like at other events this year. George did a strong job, but the car was lacking the pace to hold on with the train in front. For Lewis, he had contact on lap one which cost him ground.
"Then it was a good battle with Mick, who was fighting hard for position. Lewis eventually came out on top, so he starts the race one place higher than he qualified. Now we need to learn the lessons and improve our pace in the Grand Prix tomorrow."
