Hamilton congratulates Verstappen and praises his team

Lewis Hamilton expressed his enthusiasm for his solid performance in the Sprint race, while giving credit to eventual winner Max Verstappen for ‘impressive pace’ on Saturday.

The Brit overtook the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and was comfortably second, outpacing everyone with the exception of the 3-time world champion.

The 38-year-old even had a shot at the Red Bull as he was keeping within DRS in the opening laps, but in the end the Dutchman was able to pull a 10 seconds gap.

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“That was a fun race. Good start down to Turn 1. Good battle with Charles and then I was trying early on to get closer to Max, but their pace is just undeniable at the moment.” Hamilton said.

“But I’m happy. We are a little bit closer. We’ve still got a long way to be able to eek the pace that he was doing throughout the race but nonetheless I’m really happy to be back on the podium.”

Hamilton starts Sunday’s race from P3, just the same as in the Sprint, but with Verstappen down in 6th, the 7-time world champion will certainly be in contention for the win with that sort of pace.