Lewis Hamilton had a difficult day in the first race of the 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season at the Red Bull Ring. Starting in fifth place, behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas, after receiving a late penalty, the Briton had work to do if he was going to be able to work his way back up into the podium positions.
Finishing in second position on the road, he was dropped to fourth after being handed a five-second time penalty after the chequered flag dropped, while his team-mate took the victory.
Despite the difficulties he faced as a result of the penalties, Hamilton remained optimistic of the performance of the car, saying he learnt lessons from the weekend which he hopes will help them in future.
“The team did a really great job today and so did Valtteri. I drove my heart out in the race, I did everything I could – but it was just one of those weekends,” he said
“There are lots of areas where I can improve. I didn’t do a great job in Qualifying yesterday and there’s only me to blame; then this morning was very unusual to get called up right before the race, but I just tried to keep my head down and drive hard.”
He added that he felt the incident he had with Red Bull Racing‘s Alexander Albon did not feel worthy of a penalty, as he considered it to be more a racing incident, although recognised there was nothing he could do but make the best of the situation.
“The scenario with Alex [Albon] felt more like a racing incident to me. The time penalty meant that I lost the podium, but it is what it is.
“The car felt great, although reliability was a real issue for us today. But at least we finished, so we’ll take those points.
“Obviously it’s a loss from a potential 1-2, but I’ll try to recover those in the coming races. Ultimately, this was not a good weekend for me, but it could be worse – I’ll take what I’ve got, try to learn from it and be better next time,” he said.
