Hamilton ‘counting down the days’ until Mercedes upgrades

Lewis Hamilton says he is “counting down the days” until he gets his hands on the new Mercedes upgrade package in Imola.

The Mercedes driver came home in sixth place at the Miami Grand Prix despite starting down in P13 after a difficult qualifying session on Saturday.

Hamilton added that he had “a lot of fun” fighting his way through the field in Miami.

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Before the race, Mercedes opted to gamble with the hard tyre off the line, hoping a longer first stint would pay dividends later on. The seven-time F1 champion however, was stuck behind Alex Albon in a DRS train, for more than 10 laps but once those around him pitted, he was able to extend the life of his tyres and run long enough to swap to medium tyres much later on.

On fresh rubber, Hamilton picked off Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc to climb to sixth – running out of laps to chase down Carlos Sainz in fifth.

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“I think to get from 13th to sixth I’m pretty happy with that,” he said. “Unfortunately, we started so far behind, but I enjoyed the race.

“Saturday was difficult, but I always try to turn negatives into positives. I had a lot of fun making my way through; it was great to have several battles, so I enjoyed it,” Hamilton said after the race.

The veteran driver was frustrated by DRS train early in the race

“It wasn’t spectacular at the start as we were stuck in a DRS train and struggling to overtake. I had to bide my time and then eventually, I was able to start attacking. The car was much better on the medium tyre and came alive midway through the race.”

Hamilton managed to make 10 overtakes during the race

The Silver Arrows are brining the much discussed upgrades for next race in Imola and the British driver is eager.

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“Definitely been counting down the days for it,” he said.

“I’ll find out this week what we are expecting. What kind of trajectory that puts us but I’m really hopeful that helps us take a step forward. I think others might bring upgrades as well, so it will be really interesting to see where we are with the lay of the land but I’m excited,” Hamilton added.

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