Lewis Hamilton was happy to climb from thirteenth on the grid to finish seventh in the Monaco Grand Prix to limit the damage in the championship, with his result better than he had expected before hand.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team racer had been eliminated in Q2 on Saturday and was hopeful that he could break into the points, with his strategy team suggesting tenth was possible, but he bettered that by three positions, and left Monaco by scoring six points.
“I’m really, really happy that I was able to fight back to seventh,” said Hamilton. “The strategists said P10 was probably the maximum today, so it feels great to have beaten that target.
“To score six points, considering where I was on the grid after a disastrous day on Saturday is a good recovery. Today it was impossible to overtake and I tried everything to get past Carlos [Sainz] at the end! I’m just grateful to have ended up in P7.”
Hamilton assured his team over the radio in the closing stages of the race that the battle for the championship is far from over, despite Scuderia Ferrari finishing first and second in Monaco, with the Briton aiming for a return to the front of the field next time out in Canada.
“I went on the radio at the end there to make sure the team know that this battle isn’t over,” said Hamilton. “We’ll be sure to push those red cars hard next time out in Canada.
“We’ve got a real fight on our hands, but there are still 14 races to go.”
