Lewis Hamilton finished fourth at the Austrian Grand Prix, while his Mercedes teammate George Russell took victory. Mercedes revealed that damage to the floor of Hamilton’s Formula 1 car during the race equated to a loss of “two and a half tenths” per lap. Hamilton had a good start and overtook Carlos Sainz, but concerns over a penalty for leaving the track at Turn 1 led to instructions to surrender the position. Hamilton received a five-second penalty for crossing the pit entry line due to a moment of oversteer, which caused him to finish 23 seconds behind Russell. However, the difference in performance between the two Mercedes drivers was due to damage to the bottom of Hamilton’s car, which affected his lap times. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted it was a difficult day for Hamilton and stressed the severity of the penalty to surrender the position. He also mentioned the significant damage to the floor caused by going over the curbs, which cost Hamilton around two and a half tenths of a second in some parts of the track. Hamilton admitted he was uncertain about when he suffered the damage that hurt his pursuit of Sainz. He also said he has yet to see the footage of the incident that led to the loss of time. Despite Mercedes’ first victory since November 2022, Hamilton expressed that the result did not significantly change things for him personally, but recognized Russell’s excellent performance and considered it a significant achievement for his teammate and the team.
