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Hamilton annoyed by safety car De Vries: 'A kick in the teeth'

Hamilton annoyed by safety car De Vries: 'A kick in the teeth'

01-05-2023 08:25 Last update: 09:33
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GPblog.com

Max Verstappen was not the only driver negatively surprised by the safety car after Nyck de Vries' accident. Lewis Hamilton had also just made his pit stop and lost a lot of places. Over the board radio, the Briton's frustration was clearly audible.

In Saturday's sprint race, Hamilton could make little impression. He eventually lost one place and finished seventh. After the main race, Hamilton was reasonably upbeat in front of the media, including GPblog, although in the end, he did not move beyond sixth position. Two mediocre results for the former world champion in two days.

Hamilton is hungry

"Because you know, there's so much work going into the weekend and then yesterday was a difficult day where you went backwards and then today, I was hoping for a better day and then I lost so many places. I lost five places or whatever it was. So that's definitely a kick in the teeth but then that's like, it is what it is and just, I think today shows that the hunger is there and once I get that confidence in that car, the pace will come.”

At the previous race in Australia, Hamilton made it to the podium. In Baku, that was never in sight. "We didn't have the pace that we had in the last race, which is obviously not the greatest, but there's no lack of motivation in this team. We’re all super hungry and just working towards getting those upgrades. So I think this is the beginning of something hopefully better in the next races.”