Lewis Hamilton insists fourth place in Austin is ‘amazing result’

Lewis Hamilton says that FerrariThe Austin Grand Prix performance was an “amazing result” after he and his teammates Charles Leclerc finished fourth and third respectively.

Despite a poor performance in Saturday's sprint race, the Prancing Horse showed good pace during the Grand Prix, with Hamilton moving up to fourth place during Sunday's race, ahead of former Mercedes teammate George Russell.

Leclerc battled with McLaren's Lando Norris but was unable to pass the title challenger and was instead forced to settle for third place, although he was voted driver of the day for his efforts.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen took victory and added more points to his sprint race win, meaning he is just 40 points behind Drivers' Championship leader Oscar Piastri in his quest for a fifth world title.

“Yes, a good result is a fantastic result for the team,” Hamilton reflected after the race.

“Third and fourth, good points. It's great to finish ahead of the Mercedes team, to get these points and even ahead of McLaren. Definitely positive.

“We're moving forward, even after a bad start. There are many, many positives to take from this, and naturally I want to move up, but we're definitely on the right track.”

Hamilton was then asked if he regretted Ferrari's strategy of sending Leclerc out on soft tires first, but the 40-year-old driver decided to assess the overall positives of Ferrari's game plan.

“I think it was ultimately the fastest strategy,” he explained. “Before Charles stopped, I was close to him, but 10 seconds was too much of a gap for me to try and catch him and I couldn’t close the gap at all.

“It was a little unfortunate, but given that we haven't upgraded the car to allow us to compete, it shows the team did a great job this weekend. We're so close, but I don't have a podium and I'll keep trying.”