Lewis Hamilton’s heartbreaking unheard radio when he realised he would miss out on the podium in Austin

Follow us on Google Discover

Lewis Hamilton had one of his most positive weekends since joining Ferrari at the United States Grand Prix.

Ferrari looked way off the pace after both of their drivers barely made it into the top 10 shootout for Saturday’s Sprint Race.

Charles Leclerc reacted to Lewis Hamilton overtaking him as the seven-time world champion finished fourth, but the Monegasque driver came out on top during qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton started fifth, with Charles Leclerc third, and the 28-year-old got the better of Lando Norris on softer tyres to jump the McLaren.

Hamilton also made up a position, overtaking George Russell and immediately pulling away from a struggling Oscar Piastri.

However, the seven-time world champion’s progress was halted at this stage, unable to keep up with Leclerc on his soft tyres, or the fantastic race pace of Norris and Max Verstappen in the lead.

Danica Patrick suggested Hamilton sounded ‘defeated’ at the start of the race weekend, but he was far more positive about Ferrari’s performance at the end of the race.

Unfortunately, Hamilton’s wait for a Ferrari podium goes on, and one of his final radio messages highlighted how frustrated he was about not breaking that duck.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Lewis Hamilton says ‘I’ve got nothing’ after missing out on United States Grand Prix podium

Leclerc produced an incredible defence against Norris for 21 laps before the McLaren finally used its pace advantage to overtake him.

Hamilton, on lap 32, just before he switched onto the softer compound, asked on the team radio: “Find out how Charles’ balance was on the soft for me. I’ve got understeer. So for this tyre I’ll take a couple of holes at least.

His race engineer, Riccardo Adami, simply responded: “We’re going for soft. Box now.”

It’s a sign of Hamilton’s experience that he was willing to lean on the experience of his teammate to try and drag the maximum amount of performance out of the SF-25.

However, even on a theoretically quicker tyre than his teammate, he wasn’t able to close the gap to Leclerc and Norris to try and secure his first podium of the campaign.

During the final laps of the race, Hamilton said on the radio: “The guys ahead are just pulling away, mate, I’ve got nothing.”

Adami replied: “Understood, we are pulling away from Piastri, you are doing well.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Lewis Hamilton lauds ‘amazing result’ for Ferrari after admitting he was on the wrong strategy

Ferrari scored nine points in the Sprint Race before adding 27 more points to their tally after Sunday’s Grand Prix.

It means Fred Vasseur’s team are seven points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, but Red Bull are only three points further back with five race weekends to go.

Speaking in his official media session after the race, Hamilton said: “Yeah, a good result – an amazing result for the team.

“Third and fourth, good points. It’s great to finish ahead of the Mercedes team, to get those points and even ahead of a McLaren. Definitely a positive.

“Going forward, even after a bad start. Lots and lots of positives to take from it, and naturally I want to be further up, but we’re definitely on the right path.”

Hamilton was also asked about his strategy compared to Leclerc’s and explained: “I think it was clearly the quickest strategy in the end.

“Before Charles’ stop, I was right with him, but to come out 10 seconds behind was far too big a deficit for me to try and catch, and I couldn’t close the gap at all.

“That was a bit unfortunate, but considering we haven’t been upgrading the car for us to be kind of in the fight shows that the team has done a great job this weekend. We’re so close, but I’ve not got that podium, and I’ll keep trying.”

Hamilton nearly lost P4 to Piastri after a late issue with one of his tyres, meaning for the second race in a row, he was limping over the finish line.

Thankfully, on this occasion, there was no penalty for Hamilton to ruin his mood after the race.