‘I gave it everything’, says Hamilton

A DOWNCAST Lewis Hamilton (caricature) said he had tried everything to claim a podium finish before finishing fourth in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix won by his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

The 32-year-old slipped to 20 points adrift of championship leader Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, who finished second.

From eighth on the grid, Hamilton climbed to sixth on the opening lap and fought his way through to be fourth, within a second of third-placed Australian Daniel Ricciardo on the final lap.

Despite pushing as hard as he could, he was unable to pass him as Ricciardo reeled off his fifth consecutive podium finish and Hamilton ended a frustrating week with another disappointment.

“I gave it everything I could,” he told reporters after the race. “But I can only take heart from the final part of the race and move on. It has been a difficult weekend.”

Hamilton was disappointed when Vettel was not sanctioned further by the sport’s ruling body for his ‘road rage’ attack during last month’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and had another setback when he was given a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled new gearbox.

“I have a couple of down days now,” said Hamilton. “And then we go to Silverstone and it will be nice to race in front of a home crowd and to start with a clean slate.” – AFP

Constructors/Points 1. Mercedes 287, 2. Ferrari 254, 3. Red BullTAG Heuer 152, 4. Force India-Mercedes 89 , 5. Williams-Mercedes 40, 6. Toro RossoRenault 33, 7. Haas-Ferrari 29, 8. Renault 18, 9. Sauber-Ferrari 5. 10. McLaren 2.