Hamilton delighted but sees Verstappen in P2: "Max did a great job"

F1 News

26 September 2021 at 14:40

Lewis Hamilton is incredibly grateful to his Mercedes team after winning his 100th race in Formula 1. The British driver pitted at the correct time for intermediates with the rain coming in the final few laps. Hamilton regains his lead over Max Verstappen, but the Dutchman limited the damage of an engine penalty by coming second. 

Century

Hamilton started the season well, but Red Bull dominated the summer. It took Hamilton longer than he expected to get to the 100 wins. 

"I want to start saying thank you to the fans. Not the best of weather, but what a race it provided. It's taken a long time to get to 100, I wasn't sure if it'll come. Lando did such an amazing job, he's doing a great job for McLaren. Bittersweet to see my old team ahead and doing so well. They're obviously powered by Mercedes. I didn't want to let Lando go but didn't know what the weather was doing. I am incredibly grateful to the men and women at the factory and here," Hamilton said in the interview after the race. 

Mistake in qualifying 

"Obviously not the happiest with the job I did yesterday, subtle mistakes. So determined, woke up with pain in my neck. Ange [fitness trainer] has been fantastic in the last couple of weeks. It was tough, lost a lot of ground at the start trying to stay out of trouble. Max must have done a great job to come to second from last. I'm not sure, it would've been tough to get past Lando. Then the rain came, the team did an amazing job. There's nothing i can do for those behind me, that's a dream result for Max," Hamilton added.