Lewis Hamilton has said that his Miami Grand Prix weekend was a “challenging” one, but insists it “won’t define us”. The Ferrari driver struggled for pace during the event.
Hamilton was consistently a few tenths adrift of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc throughout the Sprint weekend in Miami. He failed to finish any session in the top five.
He was classified in sixth in Sunday’s race, ahead of Leclerc, due to a 20-second time penalty for the Monegasque driver. The penalty was for cutting several corners on the last lap following his hit with the barriers.
Hamilton’s Struggles in Miami
“A challenging weekend for us. With the contact I was pretty much stuck in no man’s land and couldn’t extract more from the car,” Hamilton wrote on Instagram.
“Tough to take especially given all the hard work the team has put in, but this won’t define us. It’s how we keep going. We’re taking what we can from these past few days and putting everything else behind us. We move forward.”
Hamilton started the season off strongly in Australia and China, claiming his first Ferrari podium in Shanghai. However, he has lacked performance compared to Leclerc at the last two races in Japan and Miami.
He was four tenths behind Leclerc in Sprint Qualifying. Hamilton then dropped away from the leading drivers on his way to seventh in the Sprint.
Damage Impacted Hamilton’s Race
The team made set-up changes to his car for Qualifying which brought Hamilton to within two tenths of Leclerc. The seven-time world champion had contact with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto on the opening lap of the Grand Prix, so ran a largely lonely race.
“Obviously it’s not a good weekend at all. Seventh and seventh [sixth after Leclerc’s penalty]; no-man’s land in both races,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“Particularly with the damage, there was nothing I could do. Really unfortunate because the team worked so hard so to come away with so few points… we have to move on from here.”
Hamilton explained the contact, saying: “It was just contact. I was unlucky with Max spinning and I had to go to the right of him. I had a good Turn One and I was in a good position and then the only place I could go was right.
“I lost positions from there and then I think it was Franco that hit me and I lost a lot of performance from there.”
Looking Ahead to Montreal
The next F1 race is in Montreal, a track that has historically been one of Hamilton’s best. He has six pole positions and seven wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
He took his maiden F1 pole position and win at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2007 with McLaren.
Ferrari effectively brought a new car to Miami.