F1 | Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton: “Difficult choices to accept”

Lewis Hamilton tries everything in Istanbul: the seven-time world champion is eleventh at the green light and immediately tries to catch up with the trio in front, but is forced first to contend with Vettel's Aston Martin and then with Yuki Tsunoda, both staunch in defending their position. Much simpler battles, however, were those with Stroll, Norris and Gasly and this is how Hamilton arrived behind Sergio Perez, with whom he engaged in a fantastic fight. The Mexican returns to the pits and Lewis climbs to fourth position, determined to reach the end without returning to the pits. The wall, however, decides to preserve the world champion and his fight for the title, and the pit stop takes place a few kilometers from the end. Lewis returns to fifth position, losing the championship lead: Verstappen is now at the top of the standings with a six-point advantage. The only one who managed to finish the race on a single set was Esteban Ocon: Lewis' surprise at the end of the race was great, but the English driver accepted the team's decision.

"It's frustrating, but that's how it went: it was nice to be in third place and I thought if I could hold on it would be a great result, having started from eleventh position. Strategic choices like today can be hard to accept – said the world champion – I'm by nature a risk taker and from third position I aimed to avoid the stop when everyone came back to put on new intermediates, hoping to be able to seize the opportunity and directly mount the slicks at the end and gain positions. Then the team makes the call and you have to trust the team, accept their choices and hope they are the right ones; like I always say, we win and lose together as a team. All in all, the car was perfect this weekend and Valtteri did an amazing job. If we can continue with performances at the same level as the last few weekends, I will be in a good position for the end of the season".