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Hamilton reviews performance deficit to Red Bull after P2 in French GP

Hamilton reviews performance deficit to Red Bull after P2 in French GP

20-06-2021 15:36

Lewis Hamilton wasn't able to keep enough life in his hard tyres as Max Verstappen attacked from a two-stop and overtook the seven-time World Champion towards the end of the race. The Mercedes driver gives his reaction. 

Long stint

Hamilton ran a long stint on the hard tyres, but couldn't hold on long enough with Verstappen chasing on the medium tyres. 

"No, it wasn't enough. Congrats to Max, he did a better job today. They just had the better power on the straights all weekend and I think just considering we had a difficult Friday, I'm really happy with this result. Of course, we didn't win and we were in the lead but I had no tyres left at the end, and unfortunately lost the position but still, it was a good race," Hamilton told Martin Brundle in the post-race interviews. 

Hamilton is now further behind in the World Championship, and Red Bull stay ahead in the constructors' championship. The Mercedes driver tries to work out where they need to improve.

"We've got to find some pace, that's for sure. Most of the time today we lost was on the straights, so we've got to dig deep and figure out where that is. Whether it's power or drag. We've still got a great package. We didn't know how strong the undercut would be, what was surprising was running out of the left front tyre early on. They had a good strategy which worked really well for them."