After the great step forward of Mercedes in Silverstone, everything seemed to indicate that the Austrian Grand Prix would be the definitive test that would show if the German team had hit the key or if it really was the result of a weekend, just like it happened in the Spanish GP.
Although it is true that the performance of the Mercedes W13 was very promising in practice and also during qualifying, the British driver was left with no options to fight or at least try to get closer to the fight for pole position after an accident at turn 7 of the Red BullRing.
The seven-time world champion lost control of his car when looking to improve on his previous lap, in which he had already made a small mistake, but the only thing he managed to do was end up against the wall and end the qualifying session in the worst possible way. most promising of the season for those of Brackley .
As soon as he got out of his W13 , Hamilton spoke about the incident and admitted to being “incredibly disappointed” with what happened, as he had the feeling for the first time that he had a car that was really capable of fighting Red Bull and Ferrari in a single lap. .
“Yes, I’m fine. It was a big blow, but I’m fine,” he said to reassure everyone after his impact.
“I’m incredibly disappointed in myself. And I’m sorry for the team, they all worked so hard to get this car and you never want to hurt it. Also, we were fighting to finish in the top three I think,” he added.
Regarding his accident, the Mercedes driver could not say much more than what had already been seen on television: “I only know that I lost the rear of the car at turn 7 and that was it.”
Thinking about the two races that still remain in this 2022 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, one in the sprint on Saturday and the usual one next Sunday, Hamilton was positive and confident enough to “make up for lost time”.
“I’m encouraged, yes. I’m motivated, of course, we didn’t expect to have a performance like today. So that’s very positive from the team. But I’ll really start quite a bit behind, so I don’t know what is possible to do from there. , but we also have a sprint race [before the normal race], so hopefully tomorrow I can make up for lost time.”
Lewis Hamilton accident in Q3 of the 2022 F1 Austrian GP
