Lewis Hamilton says he’s not sure what Mercedes could have done differently to beat Red Bull in Austin on Sunday after losing ground in the Formula 1 title race.
Hamilton took the lead from championship rival Max Verstappen on lap 1 at Turn 1 but was undercut after Red Bull decided to bring the Dutchman first for an early pit stop.
Mercedes extended both Hamilton’s first and second stints to create a tire delta that would allow him to regain the time he had lost on Verstappen.
Hamilton sat more than eight seconds behind the RBR driver after his second stop and used his fresher tires to go more than a second per lap faster at one point and to reduce the gap to less than two seconds.
But Hamilton couldn’t get close enough on the final laps to overtake Verstappen, whose reaction ensured the gap stabilized and he could hold onto victory.
The result means that Hamilton is 12 points behind Verstappen in the drivers’ standings five races before the end of the season.
“It was a fun race,” said Hamilton. “We got off to a good start and he seemed pretty close the whole time on the medium tire. Then they obviously stopped extremely early and tried to balance me out afterwards.
“I was hoping this would give us a chance to fight late but I think the position on the track was key today.”
Hamilton said Red Bull was “faster on all tires today” and said his advantage in warmer conditions “shone through this weekend”.
“I don’t know what we could have done differently,” added Hamilton. “I sit down and then talk to the team. I think the team did a great job today and it was what we had.
“We’re going to do at least the next two tracks, which are very strong tracks for Red Bull, so it’ll be tough.”
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff did not believe that Team Hamilton could have pitted in Verstappen, but he did believe that its hard tire speed was strong enough to win the race.
“I think we could of course have won the race because we were in the lead and had very good pace on the road,” said Wolff.
“In a way, we have to retrace the weekend from Friday to Sunday, where did we miscalculate, where did we get it wrong, what did we do well?
“There will be a lot of positive discussions about what can be learned from this weekend.”
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