Lewis Hamilton believes his chances of securing an eighth F1 crown have gone after Mercedes’ problems worsened at Imola. The Briton claimed the team are ‘obviously not fighting for the championship’ as they failed to reach the top 10 during Saturday’s sprint race.
He said: “Ultimately, we haven’t got it right this year but everyone is working as hard as they can to correct it. This is the situation that we are faced with but everyone has their heads down and everyone is working as hard as they can.
“We’re obviously not fighting for this championship but we’re fighting to understand the car and progress through the year.” The seven-time champion started the race 13th after he was knocked out of Q2 on Friday afternoon.
However, he lost a spot during the race on Saturday and was then stuck behind a train of cars for the rest of the afternoon. His team-mate George Russell was only 11th, finishing in the same spot he started.
READ MORE: Toto Wolff answers question on Lewis Hamilton after being left angry
The Saturday sprint race was eventually won by Max Verstappen after a thrilling race with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The reigning champion was passed by the Ferrari star off the line but the Dutchman saved his tyres to reel him in towards the end.
Verstappen passed Leclerc with just two laps remaining and held on to take the win.
He said: “Yeah the start was really bad, I don’t know why, maybe too much wheelspin. I think Charles ran out of tyres, today it worked out for us to be on this compound but I don’t know about tomorrow. I’m of course happy about today, but tomorrow might be a bit different.”
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