Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton started fourth in Sunday afternoon's Russian Grand Prix and that's the exact same position he finished. However, it was not for want of trying to get further up the field, as his car would start to overheat as soon as he would close in on the third placed Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and he would need to back off and get out fo the turbulent air coming off the Finn's car.
Lewis's entire Russian weekend was a disaster in his eyes after he was unable to gewt a perfect lap together and the race was just a culmination of what he described as a ‘bad week'.
However, he was very happy for his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, sho secured his debut win the series and maintained Mercedes record of winning every GP ever held in Russia.
“A big congratulations to Valtteri. He did an exceptional job today and he really deserves it,” Lewis said. “He's been fast all weekend and he's done such a good job for the team. He's a fantastic teammate to work with and it's such an amazing feeling winning your first Grand Prix.”
“For me it was a very tough weekend. I just wasn't quick enough. I've never had cooling issues like that before but it meant I was out of the race from the get-go. I think I had the pace to fight with Kimi, but the car just kept overheating. Ultimately, if I had better pace then I would have been further up. At least I got some good points for the team. I'm just hopeful that I can pick up the pace at the next race.”
