Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton secured his ninth podium of the 2017 season on Sunday when he finished the final showing of the Malaysian Grand Prix in second place.
It was clear, not just to Lewis but to anyone watching, that after just a few laps it was going to be a struggle to finish on the podium. Both Red Bull and Ferrari had better cars on the day, with Max Verstappen taking the lead early on and Sebastian Vettel fighting back to get within ten seconds of the Mercedes with only a few laps remaining,
Nevertheless he still managed to score a good number of points and extend his lead in the drivers' championship over Sebastian Vettel by a further 6 points, and after a weekend where the car lacked a significant chunk of performance, he couldn't have imagined such a good outcome…
“It was a much better weekend than we had anticipated after our Friday, considering the issues we did have with the car this is a good result,” he said. “But still we have a lot of work to do with the car, some of the corners really magnified the issues we have. These next races are going to be crucial in terms of ironing out some of the creases we have with the car.”
‘I was having some problems with de-rates at the beginning of the race, so I was struggling with battery power. Valtteri seemed to struggle a lot more; I was able to pull a little bit more out of it. Naturally, I wanted to win the race, winning the races is still the goal. So even to be second is not that satisfying. Today was a step towards in trying to win the world championship and every point counts.”
