Hamilton warned that the pace was a “huge positive” after the Silver Arrows looked more competitive compared to Red Bull and Ferrari. He said, “Yes, I’m fine. It was a big hit, but I’m fine. I’m incredibly disappointed with myself in the end and I feel really sorry for the team that worked so hard to build this car and I never like to bring it back damaged. We were fighting for the top three I think and I don’t have an answer. “I lost the back end at turn seven and that was it. I’m definitely gutted, of course it’s encouraging to see our performance. We didn’t expect it to be as close as it was today. That’s a huge positive from the team, but I’m really far behind , so I don’t know what’s possible from there, but we also have a sprint race, so hopefully I can make up for lost time.” READ MORE: Toto Wolff’s fiery response after fans boo Lewis Hamilton’s crash His race engineer, Marcus Dudley, replied: “We’re still waiting for the rest of the session. At the moment we are in P8 and we will end up in P10.” Dudley then claimed that Hamilton had the pace to go second had he completed the lap. Teammate George Russell also crashed out in the third quarter in a period of horror for the German manufacturer. But team principal Toto Wolff defended both drivers after the session despite the double whammy. He added: “These two should never beat themselves up over this situation – crashing out. We gave them a car that was not up to par for 10 races in a row and now we start to get together and drive forward, it can happen that you just lose the car. “I’d rather have a fast car and a qualifying like this than not have the pace to be in the top four.”
