I lost so much time

Despite moving up three places from his starting position to finish fourth, Lewis Hamilton was disappointed with his result in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Having shown impressive pace during final practice, Hamilton only qualified seventh while team mate George Russell took pole position. The pair converged during the race, and Hamilton briefly got ahead of his team mate, but lost the position with two laps to go.

After he got out of the race Hamilton described it as one of his “worst races” to date. No doubt a better result had been available – Mercedes were contenders for victory in Canada.

But Hamilton’s race had also been spoiled by a significant delay behind a lapped car. It occured with particularly unfortunate timing for his race, and cost him much of the advantage he had gained through the early change to slick tyres he had lobbied for.

Hamilton was one of the first drivers to switch to slick tyres when rain started to fall. But the time lost behind Zhou Guanyu meant he couldn’t take full benefit from it, which helps explain why he was so disappointed with his result.

Hamilton’s 2024 Canadian Grand Prix radio

Jump to:

“You are the fastest man on track”
“Has anyone else stopped?”
“Don’t leave this too late”
“I just lost so much time”
“We maybe went a little bit early”
“Why would you put a hard on?”
“This tyre’s not good”
“The positive is the car is back in performance”

“You are the fastest man on track”

Hamilton got ahead of Daniel Ricciardo at the start but remained trapped behind Fernando Alonso. This proved costly, as the Aston Martin driver dropped back from the leading group which compromised Hamilton’s race-leading team mate, followed by Max Verstappen and the McLarens.

As the track dried out and the leaders became more concerned about the state of their tyres, Alonso and Hamilton moved closer towards them. Hamilton wasn’t able to mount an attack on the Aston Martin driver, even once DRS was enabled, something Red Bull said they were pushing for but which appears not to have been discussed at Mercedes.

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