In Austria, on a track that in his career has given him far more disappointments than joys, Lewis Hamilton has hit the third consecutive podium of a season that finally sees him return to being the protagonist. The seven-time English world champion, who appeared very uncomfortable in the first GPs of the year, is actually second in terms of number of points collected in the championship in the last four races, behind only Max Verstappen. The Mercedes veteran also made a splendid comeback on the Red Bull Ring track, then benefited in the final part of the race from the reliability problems of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, forced to retire while he was sniffing a probable second place.
This opened the doors to the third step of the podium in Hamilton. After the race, the most successful driver in F1 history showed all his satisfaction, but he also admitted at the press conference that he had competed in a second half of GP rather lonely. So the # 44 joked with Leclerc and Verstappen, sitting next to him, revealing that he enjoyed their duel for the victory from the big screens positioned in some strategic points of the track.
“I was a little lonely when I got behind these guys – the 37-year-old from Stevenage joked – they were about 30 seconds ahead of me. I was watching their competition on TV, along the straights I looked where they were. I could see them coming into turn 6 as I exited turn 1. So I had a bit of a ‘fan’ view of everything that was happening. I’ve seen some of their overtaking. I think they also played replays and more. But after such a difficult weekend, with the accident and the monumental effort by the team to rebuild my car, this is a truly fantastic result. So I’m very grateful “said the standard bearer of the Brackley stable.
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