Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton 'disappointed' with fifth at British Grand Prix despite 'amazing crowd'

Updated 02/07/2022 at 23:37 GMT

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamiltonhad appeared set to challenge for pole position at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone after he was the second quickest driver in the first two practice sessions on Friday. On Saturday afternoon he could only take fifth place in the wet conditions at the track, leaving him and team-mate George Russell to admit their disappointment.

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Lewis Hamilton was ‘disappointed’ with a fifth place British Grand Prix qualifying spot despite the "amazing" crowd at Silverstone.

The Mercedes driver had been second fastest in both practice sessions on Friday but his performance on Saturday suffered.

Mercedes had brought a host of new changes to Silverstone, but it was not enough for pole.

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"I'm a little bit disappointed for the crowd," Hamilton told Sky Sports. "I was pushing so hard to get on the front row and pole position today and I think we could've been in the top three, honestly.

"I was gunning for second at least. I qualified fifth, but at least I've got this amazing crowd, so I'll try and push forward."

Team-mate George Russell claimed eighth place, and he observed that the team had struggled.

"As the session progressed, things got progressively worse. I had really good confidence in Q1 for the majority but then we didn't have that come Q3 when it mattered,” he stated.

"The car definitely had the pace for P4, P5 today - I made a mistake when it mattered on the last lap, so, little bit disappointed but there is still promise there.

"The pace in the dry this morning looked really strong. It's going to be dry tomorrow and our pace at high fuel could be on a par with the guys at the front - but obviously starting down at P8 is going to be a hard task."

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