Lewis Hamilton admitted that while he was disappointed to miss out on winning the title at the United States Grand Prix as he did enjoy the battling finished third at Circuit of the Americas.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport driver started on pole was beaten off the line by Kimi Räikkönen and went on to have a race long battle with the Scuderia Ferrari before Max Verstappen in the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing joined in later on.
“It was actually a really fun race, to be close with Kimi and have a bit of a battle with him and Max.” said Hamilton. “It was quite cool that it was Ferrari, Red Bull and us battling for positions and it must have been exciting to watch.
“Naturally, I’m a bit disappointed in our performance, to have started first but finished third, but I’m still grateful that I managed to finish up ahead of Seb.”
There was no race data for teams to use after the rain on Friday and Hamilton feels that hindered him but he enjoyed “pushing like crazy”
“When you don’t have Friday practice you don’t get to work on the set-up and get the optimum out of the car. Everyone was in the same boat, but I think ultimately Ferrari came closer to us with the changes they made.
“In the race, we were lacking pace on the straights, but I gave it everything. I was still pushing like crazy and that’s what racing is all about.”
Hamilton’s third place finish wasn’t enough for him to win the title this weekend with Sebastian Vettel in fourth and he admitted the title was on his mind when battling with Verstappen but is now looking forward to Mexico next weekend.
“I had one little chance at the end, but I had to give Max a lot of space because it’s better to finish third than get taken out by someone who’s not fighting for the championship, so I didn’t want to take that risk.
“We were going for the win today, but it wasn’t meant to be. We’re going to Mexico next; it’s such a beautiful place, but I haven’t always had the best results there, so I definitely want to win that race.”
