“One of my worst races,” says Hamilton after missing the podium

MONTREAL:

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said he had driven “one of the worst races” of his long career on Sunday when he finished fourth behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton said he believed his car was capable of winning but had made too many mistakes in his 341st race, in which Russell passed him in the closing laps to snatch his first podium this year at one of his favorite tracks.

“Over the weekend, my performance was poor,” he said. “A few other things went into it yesterday, mainly myself, but today is one of the worst races I’ve ever run. A lot of mistakes.”

“Of course, if I had qualified better, I would have been in a better position…

“But it’s becoming a car we can fight with and that’s really positive going into the next part of the season. It’s going to be a close battle and if I understand it right, I’ll get better results.”

“I think this weekend the car was able to win. It’s such a great feeling that we’re going to score points and keep trying.”

Hamilton holds the joint record of seven wins and six pole positions at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where he achieved his first victory, with McLaren, in 2007.

Russell, who had started from the second pole position of his career and the team’s first since Hamilton’s pole position in Hungary last year, said: “This feels like a missed opportunity. We were very fast at the beginning with the intermediates and then Lando came back. “. Very fast, but then we went back on the slicks and made a couple of mistakes, pushing the limits and paying the price.

“However, it was our first podium of the year, we had a really fast car and to be back in contention for a win, that’s what F1 is all about.”

Asked about his two bold finishing moves on McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Hamilton, Russell added: “It was pretty close with Oscar and Lewis at the end. It was a tough race, but fair.”

“It’s very difficult when there is only one dry line, so you have to be committed and trust your rivals.”

Team boss Toto Wolff said that despite missing out on the first win since the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in 2022, he was pleased with the team’s recent progress.

“A victory was perhaps a remote possibility or a short dream, but one should not be too greedy. The car has taken a good step forward and the direction of development is true.”

He added that he was not sure if Red Bull had “taken a step back” but that “the most important thing” was that its performance advantage was narrowing.