Lewis Hamilton cut a grim figure at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday as Mercedes continued to struggled. Hamilton finished outside the top 10 in both qualifying and in Saturday’s sprint.
“Yeah, we’re faced with this issue, it’s nothing I can do, all I’m doing is trying to do the best job I can. Some weekends it goes well, some weekends it doesn’t but we’re obviously not fighting for the c championship. We’re fighting for, you know, to get into Top 10 at the moment”.
‘In race pace they have something more’
Max Verstappen overtook Formula One leader Charles Leclerc on the penultimate lap to win the sprint race at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday and reignite his season.
Verstappen started the sprint in pole position after finishing first in Friday’s qualifying, but the Red Bull driver was overtaken by Leclerc’s Ferrari as soon as the lights went out, much to the delight of the ‘tifosi’.
“These cars are definitely better to follow. But it’s still very hard to get within a second because with the tire during this race, as soon as you start to be within a second, you still start to slide a bit more. So, it took a bit of time to actually really get a good run. But then once we had the good run, yeah, we had a good move into Turn 2. We gave each other enough space, but it’s been like that already, of course, the whole season so far. So I didn’t expect anything else.”
‘In race pace they have something more’ – Leclerc on Verstappen’s speed
But Verstappen doggedly pursued Leclerc and swept around the outside of the Ferrari into Tamburello before storming away to secure victory and top spot on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix. He finished 2.975 seconds ahead of Leclerc and 4.721 ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
“I did a great start, and then we were in P1, and I it was all about trying to get Max (Verstappen) away of the DRS because otherwise I knew I was very vulnerable. So, I pushed quite a bit on the tires and obviously paid the price in the end of the race, with the front tire graining, which was quite a bit. But it’s ok. I mean, the main race is tomorrow and yeah, there’s not much we can change, but the compound and the driving for sure. So I will work on that and try to optimise that. But it felt like and it feels like maybe in race pace this weekend they have something more than we do.”
Marca
