Lewis Hamilton Settles For Singular F1 Sprint Point With Deflated Spirit

Another bitter F1 session for the seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, at the Austrian Grand Prix. On Friday, the British hero was looking fierce enough to secure a potential top 3 finish in qualifying only for an awry shunt to throw him right back in the mid-field.

Nevertheless, the re-surging Mercedes W13 promised a Hamilton comeback over Sprint on Saturday. But, in reality, the end result yet again failed to live up to the expectations, as Hamilton scrambled his way through the pack only to finish in P8.

What happened to Lewis Hamilton in the sprint?

Starting from P9, the odds of Hamilton finishing in the top 5 seemed quite high. However, it all went haywire heading into the first corner of lap 1; Hamilton found himself sandwiched between two cars and ended up tapping the left rear of Pierre Gasly‘s AlphaTauri.

Although the minor contact launched the Frenchman’s Red Bull-powered car spinning onto the run-off area, Hamilton managed to keep his Mercedes intact, only losing a couple of positions. Regardless, that pretty much hampered his chances of attaining a strong finish on Saturday evening.

Not to forget the draining battle for the final point against much-aggressive Mick Schumacher. Hence, following the rather bitter-sweet sprint outing, Hamilton, admitted that the end result could have been far worse than reality.

“Tough day in the office today. Another race tomorrow! More opportunities,” the race engineer said as Hamilton crossed the line in P8.

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“Yeah, it could have been worse,” the Mercedes F1 driver replied, heaving a sigh of relief.

Hamilton refuses to take blame for Gasly incident

Following the sprint race at Red Bull Ring, Hamilton confessed that he was a mere spectator in the incident with Gasly.

“Obviously, I had two cars come around me into Turn 1 and Pierre moved across from me, there was nowhere I could really go. Unfortunate incident but I don’t think I could’ve done anything. And then, I got the same thing in Turn 3,” he said.

“I was just grateful to get around the first lap, then after that just trying to catch up. We’re quite slow on the straights so you kinda stay in the same place.”

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Overall, Hamilton will start from the fourth row on Sunday and would want to get past Magnussen and Ocon as early as possible before heading into tire management. So, assuming things work out well, where do you think Hamilton will finish the Austrian GP?